The Journey Prize Stories 33: The Best of Canada's New Black Writers

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright About the Journey Prize Stories Contents Téa Mutonji: “The Photographer’s Wife” Jasmine Sealy: “Collapse” Terese Mason Pierre: “Endowed” Christina Cooke: “Homecoming” Dianah Smith: “The Promise of Foreign” Lue Palmer: “I Swallow Creatures Whole” Zilla Jones: “Lady” Iryn Tushabe: “Lucky Baboon” Sarah Kabamba: “Field Notes on Grief” A.Z. Farah: “Pilgrimage” Téa Mutonji: “Property of Neil” Jasmine Sealy: “Caves” About the Contributors About the Contributing Publications Previous Contributing Authors Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Table of Contents Start Copyright Print Page List i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Copyright © 2023 by McClelland & Stewart
 “Homecoming” © Christina Cooke; “Pilgrimage” © A.Z. Farah; “Lady” © Zilla Jones; “Field Notes on Grief” © Sarah Kabamba; “The Photographer’s Wife” © Téa Mutonji; “Property of Neil” © Téa Mutonji; “I Swallow Creatures Whole” © Lue Palmer; “Endowed” © Terese Mason Pierre; “Caves” © Jasmine Sealy; “Collapse” © Jasmine Sealy; “The Promise of Foreign” © Dianah Smith; “Lucky Baboon” © Iryn Tushabe.
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 Library and Archives of Canada Cataloguing in Publication is available upon request
 Published simultaneously in the United States of America.
 ISBN 9780771047381
 Ebook ISBN 9780771047398
 Cover image: (Abstract shapes) Volanthevist / Getty Images;
 (Texture) Pakin Songmor / Getty Images
 Cover design: Dylan Browne
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 ABOUT THE JOURNEY PRIZE STORIES
 
 In the spring of 1988, as McClelland & Stewart was preparing to publish Pulitzer Prize–winner James A. Michener’s novel Journey, Michener made an unusual request. He asked that the royalties from the Canadian edition of his novel remain in Canada and be used to support writers in the early stages of their career. This generous donation led to the creation of the annual Journey Prize. Now in its thirty-third year, and presented for the twenty-first time in association with Writers’ Trust of Canada as the Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, the award is given to emerging writers of distinction for a short story or excerpt from a fiction work-in-progress.
 As a statement of its own commitment to new writers, McClelland & Stewart undertook to publish the annual associated anthology, The Journey Prize Stories. For more than thirty years, The Journey Prize Stories has established itself as the most prestigious annual fiction anthology in the country, introducing readers to the next generation of great Canadian writers. It is widely recognized as a who’s who of up-and-coming writers, and previous contributors include such now internationally celebrated writers as André Alexis, Sharon Bala, Michael Crummey, Emma Donoghue, Francesca Ekwuyasi, Alicia Elliott, Thomas King, Canisia Lubrin, Yann Martel, Lisa Moore, Heather O’Neill, Eden Robinson, Naben Ruthnum, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Madeleine Thien, M.G. Vassanji, and Alissa York, among many others who have gone on to distinguish themselves with acclaimed novels, short story collections, and literary awards. But we recognize that not all voices are given the same opportunities or heard equally. The Journey Prize commits to amplifying the voices of writers who have historically been marginalized by systemic inequality, including within the publishing ecosystem. This edition of Canada’s most acclaimed fiction anthology proudly continues the Journey Prize’s tradition of excellence by celebrating the best emerging Black writers in the country.
 The anthology comprises a selection from submissions made by the editors of literary magazines and annual anthologies from across the country, who have chosen what, in their view, is the most exciting writing in English by emerging Black writers whom they have published in the past three years. Submissions of previously unpublished stories were also accepted from writers directly.
 Beginning with this edition and continuing into future editions, we are making an important change to the Journey Prize: to make the prize more equitable and to further its reach, each writer with a story selected for inclusion in the anthology will be considered a Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize winner and will receive $1,000. For decades, past contributors have told us that having a story selected for the anthology is the real prize for an emerging writer, giving them the confidence not only to continue to write but also to think of themselves as writers. This change to the prize’s structure better aligns with that philosophy, with the