Contemporary writing from Canada and the world
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For this year’s Jacob Zilber Contest for Short Fiction, PRISM International was lucky enough to work with Molly Cross-Blanchard as a judge for our final shortlist. Molly was fair, thoughtful, and caring. Below is her judge’s essay about the winning and runner-up pieces. Judge’s Essay: Molly Cross-Blanchard One word I’d use to describe the experience […]
I had the pleasure of meeting Emma when she presented at the CRWR Faculty & Alumni Showcase, sharing an art-and-movie-recommendations-filled presentation on the creative research that fuelled her debut novel, Afterbirth. (Thanks for the new additions to my Letterboxd!) Encountering the novel itself, however, was a different beast. Perhaps most people born in female bodies […]
The first runner-up for the 2024 Pacific Spirit poetry prize, Michael Okafor’s I Keep Touching Myself To The Theory That The Bullet Is A Metaphysical Construct, lives up to the enormous promise of its name. This poem starts with a bullet in the ribs and stays there, vivid and unquiet. I Keep Touching Myself To […]
Today I have the privilege of sharing with you the Winner of Prism International’s 2025 Jacob Zilber Prize for Short Fiction, as chosen by judge Christina Cooke: Doll-House Dunes by Eve Cavanagh. This is a moving and original piece that I think you’ll really enjoy. Doll-House Dunes We lived in a house with no roots. Alone on the precipice of […]
Dear reader, I am honoured to share here the winner of the 2025 Grouse Grind Lit Prize for Short Forms, Bird by NmaHassan Muhammad. This touching, tender, bittersweet piece makes the most of its sparingly chosen words, all the way up to that gorgeous ending line (try to avoid reading ahead; it’s worth the wait). […]
Image: In From Out by Parsa Malihipour (fka Glossy Pupils) (from Issue 63.2, Spring 2025). Hello dear reader! Happy solstice to you and yours <3 As we wait for the days to slowly grow longer, I’d like to offer a poem from our 63.2 Issue (Spring 2025) which has stayed with me. I often return […]
You’ve all been emailing us asking “please, please, how do we date casually?” We finally have the answer, after a fashion. Here’s M.L. Henderson’s “How To Date Casually,” 2nd runner up for Prism International’s 2025 Jacob Zilber Prize for Short Fiction, as chosen by judge Christina Cooke. There’s a lot to love about this piece; see for […]
Ever wondered what happens after you hit “submit”? Most writers who send their work to literary magazines know how mysterious and exhausting the submission process can feel. You upload your pieces to different portals, add them to your tracker or calendar, and then you wait. And wait. Patiently at first, then a little less so […]
Here it is: the story our 2025 Jacob Zilber Prize judge Christina Cooke described as “Textured and full-throated… as much capricious as it is beguiling.” Andrea Bishop’s Correspondence Rejected was the first runner-up for this year’s prize. On this vibrant piece, Cooke also says: “Correspondence Rejected… makes smart use of the epistolary form to reveal […]
This fall marks the release of our final issue from volume 63 of PRISM, with our upcoming launch on Monday, October 20 (come say hi!). Featuring selections by our former Prose Editor, Sierra Louie, I wanted to share one of the issue’s most haunting and liminal pieces. Ears explores body dysmorphia through a deft blend […]
