Orlando 1974 by Lisa Alward

Lisa Alward has made the 2018 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Orlando 1974.

About Lisa

Lisa Alward's short fiction has appeared in The Journey Prize Stories 2017 and Best CanadianStories 2017 and Best Canadian Stories 2016. She is the winner of the New Quarterly's 2016 Peter Hinchcliffe ShortFiction Award as well as the 2015 Fiddlehead Short Fiction Prize. She lives in Fredericton, N.B.

Entry in five-ish words

Nuclear-family meltdown at Disney World.

The story's source of inspiration

"Recently, an old friend told me the story of a bizarre trip she took to Orlando as a child, which got me thinking about my own family's Disney vacation in the early 1970s how myparents, and particularly my father, tried so hard to make it magical yet how the cracks intheir marriage kept showing through."

First lines

My father says that Stephen only threw up because of the Hawaiian pancakes and can still go to the Magic Kingdom. His throw-up has chunks of pineapple and this white goo that could be marshmallows or the Cool Whip. It quivers on the pavement like a jellyfish. "Don't look," my father says, hustling Dougie and me into the rental car. "He's fine," he tells my mother, who is wiping Stephen's shirt with a Kleenex and doesn't turn around.

About the 2018CBCShort StoryPrize

The winnerof the2018CBCShort Story Prizewill receive$6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, will have their story published onCBCBooksand will have the opportunity to attend a 10-day writing residency at theBanff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand have their story published onCBCBooks.