CBC Books, CBC’s online home for literary content, together with its partners the Canada Council for the Arts and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, today announced Larah Luna of Vancouver as the winner of the 2026 CBC Short Story Prize. Luna’s story, A Season of Crows, was selected from nearly 3,000 entries.
As the grand-prize winner, Luna will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and her story has been published on cbcbooks.ca. Luna will discuss her winning short story on Bookends with Mattea Roach. The interview will air at a later date on CBC Radio and CBC Listen.
“I wrote A Season of Crows out of a sense that grief doesn’t disappear,” said Luna. “It shifts and settles into the world around us. Seeing crows gather felt, to me, as if they knew something before we did. The story grew from my memories of the prairies, and from the feeling that landscapes hold onto what we’ve lost. I’m deeply honoured that it resonated with the jury.”
The 2026 CBC Short Story Prize jurors Maria Reva, Terry Fallis and Tracey Lindberg said this about Luna’s story:
“The jury found A Season of Crows to be a loving portrait of the complex relationships, community and equality of spirit in a town where crows and humans cohabitate. The genuine love of neighbours, human and more than human, respect for social orders, and reciprocal understandings of home and love, are gently and skillfully woven together in this story. The author’s writing resonates deeply, allowing readers the space for both joy and grief. With the complexity of neighbouring societies laid bare, A Season of Crows reminds us all of the richness and necessity of community relationships.”
The four runners-up for the 2026 CBC Short Story Prize, who will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, are: Amber Allen of Guelph, Ont. for Pattern Recognition; Kate Cayley of Toronto for Anniversary; Carrie Mac of Vancouver for How to Break Up with a Monster and Andy Stefan of Ottawa for Low Water.
The winner of the Prix de la nouvelle Radio-Canada 2026 was also announced: Hubert Jobin-Tremblay for Lac au Mirage.
