Yolk is proud to announce Hannah Berger's "A Swelling" has been awarded first place for the 2025 Montreal Fiction Prize!
Billy-Ray Belcourt, judge of the prize, had this to say about "A Swelling":"I loved the strange language of “A Swelling,” how it felt both from another time and that it was approaching the contemporary. Its narrator is mischievous and smart and the story is told in the form of a letter to a recipient who isn’t entirely knowable. Beguiling and memorable."
Hannah Berger is a London, Ontario-born, Montreal-based writer and artist. She receives $2000 and publication in our upcoming volume (5.1).
Yolk would also like to congratulate Su Chang for penning the second-place winning story, "The Lying Life of Children," and Helen Han Wei Luo, whose story "Beasts of Burden" has been awarded third place.
Su Chang is a Chinese-Canadian writer. She is the author of a novel The Immortal Woman (House of Anansi, March 2025), which was a CBC’s “must-read historical fiction” pick and nominated for the 2025 Toronto Book Award. CBC named her one of the 2025 "Writers to Watch." Her short fiction were recognized in Prairie Fire’s Fiction Contest, Canadian Authors' Association National Contest, ILS/Fence Fiction Contest, among others.
Billy-Ray Belcourt on "The Lying Life of Children": "Assured and absorbing, “The Lying Life of Children” takes us into the complex psychological dramas of schoolchildren vying for one another’s attention. Its power lies in its treatment of its characters and subject with a seriousness and care that is elevated by finely crafted sentences."
Helen Han Wei Luo is a Chinese-Canadian writer from Vancouver, currently pursuing her PhD in philosophy at Columbia University. Her short fiction has been selected as finalist for the 2023 CBC Literary Prizes, won second place at the 2024 Plentitudes Short Story Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2025 PEN Canada New Voices Award. Her poetry appears in PRISM International, Cloud Lake Literary, Samfiftyfour, and was included in the 2023 Best of Canadian Poetry collection.
Billy-Ray Belcourt on "Beasts of Burden": “‘Beasts of Burden’ feels at once like a relaying of cherished family lore and a text that conveys entire histories in its handful of pages. Its story of a Tibetan woman’s love and grief, narrated with sympathy and wit, moved me greatly.”
The two runner-ups will receive $500 and publication in our upcoming volume.
Billy-Ray Belcourt is from the Driftpile Cree Nation in northwest Alberta. He is an Associate Professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of five books, most recently A Minor Chorus and Coexistence.
The Shortlist
Hannah Berger, "A Swelling"
Su Chang, "The Lying Life of Children"
Sally Cunningham, "If You Seek A Monument, Look About You"
Helen Han Wei Luo, "Beasts of Burden"
Shelby Satterthwaite, "Buck"
Karen Smyte, "The Quiet Game, 1973"
The Longlist
Hannah Berger, "A Swelling"
Su Chang, "The Lying Life of Children"
Sally Cunningham, "If You Seek A Monument, Look About You"
Sarah Gilbert, "Time Capsule"
Elina Kumra, "Blood Orange"
Trent Lewin, "We, the Divine"
Madeleine Leznoff, "Once in a Yellow Sun"
Helen Han Wei Luo, "Beasts of Burden"
D. F. McCourt, "So This Is My Trauma"
Shelby Satterthwaite, "Buck"
Karen Smyte, "The Quiet Game, 1973"
Audrey Whitson, "The Eyes of the Ancestors"
Q: What are you looking for in a winning story?
Billy-Ray Belcourt: An element of the unexpected, something I can’t anticipate in advance, but overall a commitment to concept, subject matter, and language.
Q: How much does your personal enjoyment figure in the assessment of a story’s quality, and how do you separate personal taste from literary acumen?
Belcourt: My personal taste is important in the sense that it encompasses a wide range of possibilities – from the campy to the serious to the theoretical to the erotic. But “quality” is subjective, even when we think we’re operating according to agreed-upon metrics. Matthew Salesses’s book, Craft in the Real World, helps us dismantle the supremacy some craft norms have held over us. Craft is how we validate one another’s tendencies and instincts and whether or not we agree to participate in them as well. Which is to say that I don’t read in order to have my tastes affirmed every time; that would be a boring way to be a reader!
Q: In A History of My Brief Body you write: “To be alert to freedom and doom is what I make of my job as a writer.” Is this general advice you would offer to emerging writers? What other advice do you have for emerging writers?
Belcourt: I think this is the job of writers interested in reimagining our conditions of living via literature. I wrote the essay from which this quote comes in the wake of the Gerald Stanley trial in Saskatchewan. I felt called to account for the violence of that trial and the original violence – the death of Colten Boushie – that preceded it. I wanted to write something to remind us we don’t have to reproduce those violences. We can insist on our freedom and our capacity to care for each other outside colonial forms of being. Writing can remind us we aren’t a courtroom, that the world isn’t private property that needs to be defended. My advice for emerging writers is to think about what motivates you to write beyond the publishing industry. What claims are you making about the world? How might you write toward your own freedom?
Q: What is the importance of literary prizes and what role can they play in a writer’s trajectory?
Belcourt: Literary prizes are important because they are a way for writers to encourage each other. Peer validation is something that can keep us going when other things slow us down.
- Yolk: An interview with last year’s winner, Sabrina Fielding
-CBC Books: "Toronto-based writer Sabrina Fielding named winner of inaugural Montreal Fiction Prize"
First Place: Sabrina Fielding, “Knick Knack”
Second Place: Zoe Lubetkin, “Too big, the perfect size”
Third Place: Eva Crocker, "Every Player Wins"
As selected by 2024 judge Souvankham Thammavongsa
Q: Is this prize only open to Montreal writers?
A: No. Despite the name, this prize is open to all Canadian writers. For our publication, we consider this to be: Anyone with Canadian citizenship or permanent citizenship, residing here or abroad; and anyone that currently resides in Canada
Q: Can I submit multiple entries to the Fiction Prize?
A: Contestants can submit more than one story, but will have to submit them individually and pay the entry fee for each story submitted.
Q: Is there a theme for the prize?
A: No. Although the winners will be published in a print issue with a theme, the contest is handled separately, and no prize submissions are expected to adhere to a theme.
Q: Can I submit to the Fiction Prize and to regular print consideration?
A: Yes, though you'll have to submit to them separately and pay the separate submission fees.
Q: Can I submit the same story to both the Fiction Prize and to regular print consideration?
A: Yes, though we recommend submitting separate stories to increase your odds of publication.
Q: When will I hear back about my story?
A: The shortlist will be announced the first week of September, and the winners shortly after. Please do not inquire about the status of your submission until mid-September.
Q: Are submissions read anonymously?
A: Yes. Therefore, do not include any personal information in your text. Any submissions including personal information (name, email, etc.) within the text will not be considered.
First Place: Sabrina Fielding, “Knick Knack”
Second Place: Zoe Lubetkin, “Too big, the perfect size”
Third Place: Eva Crocker, "Every Player Wins"
All three stories are published in Vol. 4.1 and in our Digital Publication.
Shortlist (selected by internal jury):
francesca ekwuyasi, “An Immortal Woman”
Rachael Rinn Palmer, “Vindum, Vindum” [to be published in Vol. 4.2]
Michelle Syba, “Humanities”
Longlist (selected by internal jury):
André Babyn, “The Trial of Galen Weston”
Laura Rock Gaughan, “TreeeeZone”
Amanda Merpaw, “Cusp”
Alexander "Pip" Morrison, “Jellyfish Killing”
Cassandra Nguyen, “Etymology of the Temporal Lobe”
Paz O’Farrell, “The hand that feeds has teeth”
Honourable Mentions:
Maggie Burton, “The Rat”
Alexander Hackett, “Strange Pollen”
Cassidy McFadzean, “Time Machine”
