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.
For more information on the CBC Literary Prizes, please visit cbcbooks.ca.
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About CBC Books
Home to Canada Reads, Bookends with Mattea Roach, The Next Chapter with Antonio Michael Downing, and the CBC Literary Prizes, CBC Books connects Canadians with books, encouraging a shared love of reading and writing. For book news, reading lists, author interviews and more, visit cbcbooks.ca
About CBC/Radio-Canada
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster. Through our mandate to inform, enlighten and entertain, we play a central role in strengthening Canadian culture. As Canada’s trusted news source, we offer a uniquely Canadian perspective on news, current affairs and world affairs. Our distinctively homegrown entertainment programming draws audiences from across the country. Deeply rooted in communities, CBC/Radio-Canada offers diverse content in English, French and eight Indigenous languages: Dëne Sųłıné, Dene Kǝdǝ́, Dene Zhatıé, Eastern Cree, Dinjii Zhuʼ Ginjik, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun and Tłı̨chǫ. We also deliver content in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Punjabi and Tagalog, as well as both official languages, through Radio Canada International (RCI). We are leading the transformation to meet the needs of Canadians in a digital world.
About Canada Council for the Arts
The Canada Council for the Arts is Canada’s public arts funder, with a mandate to “foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.”
The Council’s grants, services, initiatives, prizes, and payments contribute to the vibrancy of a creative and diverse arts and literary scene and support its presence across Canada and abroad. The Council’s investments foster greater engagement in the arts among Canadians and international audiences.
The Council’s Public Lending Right (PLR) program makes annual payments to creators whose works are held in Canadian public libraries.
About Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Founded in 1933, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is a learning organization built upon an extraordinary legacy of excellence in artistic and creative development. What started as a single course in drama has grown to become the global organization leading in arts, culture, and creativity across dozens of disciplines. From our home on Treaty 7 territory in the stunning Canadian Rocky Mountains, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity aims to inspire everyone who attends our campus – artists, leaders, and thinkers – to unleash their creative potential and realize their unique contribution to society through cross-disciplinary learning opportunities, world-class performances, and public outreach.
