Hi all, I managed to make the CBC Short Story Prize longlist this year. The 33 longlisted entries out of the 3000 submissions are located here: https://www.cbc.ca/1.5970008. My individual page is here: https://www.cbc.ca/books/literaryprizes/titan-arum-by-trent-lewin-1.5976780 This is my third straight year being longlisted. Feeling awfully humbled and a little overwhelmed. But really happy. If you’d like to […]
On Birthdays
The first child’s name was Mali. Jen had always wanted to go to Africa, but had been afraid of planes, so she’d named her daughter after an African country. Brad had gone along with it. Most truck drivers didn’t care about Africa. “Do you want to make me a popsicle?” asked Brad. “You don’t just […]
51,000 Words
I’ve been thinking about the art of writing, where I fit for genre, and what’s next. New Stories No new story this week. It’ll be a while before I post a new one, which doesn’t mean I’m not writing. I am. This week, I got feedback that I couldn’t enter a contest because I don’t […]
Of Mountains and Matadors
Ezra met Sonny at a shit factory. It was the type of place that took shit from sewage plants and mixed it with chemicals and steam, to make a fertilizer. To make shit bio-available to crops, a recycling of human waste to grow food that people would ingest… and turn into more shit. Ezra worked […]
Hours After You, Redux
Tomorrow, something new. But for today, this. It’s not new. It’s Hours After You. It’s a few years old, but it’s on my mind:
Ten Misconceptions about Successful Writers
Here are ten ideas we might have about writers, including the really successful ones, that are probably just not true. Misconceptions about writers are very possible! They write what they know. That’s right, because J.R.R. Tolkien knew a lot of hobbits, and George Lucas encountered many a light sword in his extensive travels upon plant […]
The Raised Eyebrow: Ending
Pt. I is here Pt. II is here “To the last bolt!” says Paul. “The last bolt!” says Chandra. With that, Paul turns the ratchet as Chandra holds the nut in place. The bolt comes out and the final shelf collapses to the ground. They stack it with the rest. “This is honest work,” she […]
The Raised Eyebrow Pt. II
The Raised Eyebrow Pt. I The office smelled of cigarettes. On the walls were photos of the machines that the factory made, machines that made other machines. There were also framed certificates of congratulations from government officials, praising the business for what it had accomplished. The door opened. A man in a suit sat down […]
The Raised Eyebrow
To look at Kartar Jain, you would not know that he was born of rape. His face is like a melon, his lips protrusions of wet fruit, and if there is a pit inside him, it is as soft and pliable as his little limbs and the palette of loose skin that is his belly. […]
Why I Don’t Use My Real Name in Writing
This isn’t my real name. It’s not the name I was born with. Not the name people know me by. I’m not a criminal or anything. I haven’t even got embarrassing videos on the internet that I don’t want people to see. In my real life, I’m a professional. I have a good career. I […]