The Baby by Kailash Srinivasan

Kailash Srinivasan has made the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize longlistfor The Baby.

• 27 writers make the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize longlist

The winner of the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have their work published on CBC Books and win a two-week writing residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.

The shortlist will be announced on April 12 and the winner will be announced on April 18.

If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2023 CBC Poetry Prize is open for submissions until May 31.

• The 2023 CBC Poetry Prize is now open to Canadian poets

About Kailash Srinivasan

Kailash Srinivasan is an Indian-Canadian author living and working in Vancouver. His work explores themes of societal, economic, religiousand political fractures, injustice and inequality. His prose and poetry have appeared in several literary magazines, including XRAY, Coachella Review, Selkie, Antilang, Oyster River Pages, Bad Nudes, Lunch Ticket, Midway Journal and others. His work has been shortlisted for the Bristol Short Story Prize and Into the Void Fiction Prize and longlisted for the Bath Short Story Award. He's currently working on his novel.

Entry in five-ish words

"Can we return this, please?"

The story's source of inspiration

"I came across a survey that asked its female readers if they would choose to have children again if given a choice. More than 70 per cent of them said no.'It made me question society's assumptions about women: Why do we expect mothers to love their children by default? Why do we expect women to enjoy motherhood or accept the constant responsibility of caring for their child/children, which often comes at their own expense? Why should a woman be expected to love a life she perhaps never sought and where she now feels trapped? It got me thinking about whether motherhood is a one-size-fits-all role."

First lines

The baby's eyes are brown, and when she sleeps on you, her tiny fingers clutch the hair on your chest, tugging like your body is a garden in need of weeding.

Pia never wanted a child; she was clear from the start. What she wanted was sex. Whether your head was exploding, or you had an early meeting or had one bar of service.

You dreaded going home, the moon popping in the sky, because that's when she got into one of her moods. If you evaded, she threatened to jump from the balcony or drink rat poison.

About the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize

The winner of the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have their work published on CBC Books and attend a two-week writing residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.

The 2023 CBC Poetry Prize is currently open until May 31, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The 2024 CBC Short Story Prize will open in September and the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January 2024.