A writer who spent his teenage years in Campbell River has won the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize.

Will Richter, now of Vancouver, will be receiving $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts for his winning entry, a short story called B次元官网网址淛ust a Howl.B次元官网网址� The story was selected from more than 2,300 entries. The story has been published on the CBC Books website, and Richter will have the opportunity to attend a two-week writing residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point in Toronto.

Richter is a writer living in Vancouver. He spent his teenage years in Campbell River on Vancouver Island. He attended Timberline Secondary School in Campbell River and received his BA in English Literature from Simon Fraser University.

Stories of his have appeared or are forthcoming in various literary magazines in Canada and the US, including Arts & Letters, The Fiddlehead, Fiction International, subTerrain, The Threepenny Review and Witness. His stories B次元官网网址淎t a DistanceB次元官网网址� and B次元官网网址淧roverbs of the LesserB次元官网网址� were long-listed for the CBC Short Story Prize in 2019 and 2021. Will has also written and collaborated on several comic shorts for Rogue Wave Comics, based in D眉sseldorf, Germany. HeB次元官网网址檚 currently working on a collection of short stories and a novel.

Jurors for the contest Kim Fu, Norma Dunning and Steven Price said that RichterB次元官网网址檚 story was a B次元官网网址減ropulsive interrogation-room story on its surface.

B次元官网网址淏次元官网网址楯ust a HowlB次元官网网址� slyly raises sharp and timely questions about the state of literature and literary culture. Here, books are simultaneously inert relics of a staid and insular subculture, bastions of beauty and contemplation in a polarized era that may need neither, and B次元官网网址� quite literally B次元官网网址� violent weapons,B次元官网网址� the jurors said. B次元官网网址淭he writer questions if B次元官网网址楽heB次元官网网址檇 been defending metaphor, empathy, introspection, a clever turn of phraseB次元官网网址� as does the reader. The jury found this clever story unexpected, accomplished and darkly funny, and were united in wanting to see what this writer does next.B次元官网网址�

Richter said he was B次元官网网址渃ompletely floored,B次元官网网址� about the news.

B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檝e been following and submitting to the CBC Short Story Prize contest for years, and to win it is hugely exciting and encouraging. I really want to thank all of the judges who saw something in my story among so many others,B次元官网网址� he said.

Runners-up will receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts. They are Clara Chalmers of West Vancouver for the story B次元官网网址淒ear M,B次元官网网址� Helen Han Wei Luo from Vancouver for the story B次元官网网址楨el Broth for Growing Children, Nicholas Ruddock from Guelph, Ont. for B次元官网网址淢arriage,B次元官网网址� and Katie Welch from Kamloops for B次元官网网址淏ird Emergent.B次元官网网址�

CBC Books also announced Annabelle Lehouillier as the winner of the French grand prize for B次元官网网址淟es notes de novembre.B次元官网网址�

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marc.kitteringham@campbellrivermirror.com
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