Apple Cake by Aleksandra Merk
The Fonthill, Ont., writer is on the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize longlist
Aleksandra Merk has made the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Apple Cake.
The winner of the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and their work will be published on CBC Books. The four remaining finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.
The shortlist will be announced on April 10 and the winner will be announced on April 17.
If you're interested in other CBC Literary Prizes, the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize is currently accepting submissions. You can submit an original, unpublished poem or collection of poems from April 1-June 1.
The 2026 CBC Short Story Prize will open in September and the 2026 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January.
About Aleksandra Merk
Aleksandra Merk is a writer and college teacher. Born in Toronto to parents from Germany and Croatia, she grew up navigating multiple cultural identities. Her writing explores immigrant family dynamics, personal longing and the inner vs. outer lives of women and mothers. In 2022, she lived with her family in Berlin where she completed a storytelling through podcasting project. She wrote about this experience on her Substack, Berlin for a Season. Merk lives in Fonthill, Ont., with her husband, two children and one very cuddly dog. She is currently seeking publication for her first novel.
Entry in five-ish words
"One woman's search for belonging."
The short story's source of inspiration
"This story was inspired by a prompt from The Story Course Intensive via the Sarah Selecky Writing School. We were given a list of random words, and for each one, we were asked to write down the first illogical word that came to mind. When the word 'love' came up, my first thought was, 'apple.' After I explored this association further, I saw a mother and daughter baking together, and the story grew from there."
First lines
The hills leading to my hometown, the place where my mother still lives, roll like a sonic wave. It is early, the roads are empty, and frost covers the trees and quiet meadows in candied sugar. When I was a teenager, I ran these hills as part of my training for rowing crew. I slurped the inclines, refreshed by the burning in my lungs, imagining the tiny alveoli expanding, contracting, crackling with electricity. When I reached the top, I savoured the metallic taste in my mouth — like sucking on pennies or drinking my own blood. Now I drive everywhere, insulated from the wind and the cold and the uneven ground.
Check out the rest of the longlist
The longlist was selected from more than 2,300 entries. A team of 12 writers and editors from across Canada compiled the list.
The jury selects the shortlist and the eventual winner from the readers' longlisted selections. This year's jury is composed of Conor Kerr, Kudakwashe Rutendo and Michael Christie.
The complete list is:
- Love is the Enemy by Vincent Anioke (Waterloo, Ont.)
- Stubborn Knots by Ari Asho (Montreal)
- The Troll Artist by Pam Barnsley (Comox, B.C.)
- Zodiac Attack by Andrea Bishop (Salt Spring Island, B.C.)
- Point of Origin by Alison Braid-Fernandez (Summerland, B.C.)
- Sour Milk by Sarah Christina Brown (New Westminster, B.C.)
- Slug Lord by Petra Chambers (Hornby Island, B.C.)
- Cultus Spring by Jan Crerar (Salmon Arm, B.C.)
- 108th & Central by Barbara Darby (Lethbridge, Alta.)
- Savages by Lewis DeSoto (Toronto)
- Mothers Day, 2017 by Gráinne Downey (Vancouver)
- Driving in a Snowstorm by Izza Farhan (Toronto)
- Sudbury Saturday Night by Emily Groot (Sudbury, Ont.)
- Juicy Fruit, 1947 by Henry Heavyshield (Standoff, Alta.)
- Glow by Linda Kingston (Ottawa)
- Westward by Josée Lafrenière (Montreal)
- Ghostworlds by Trent Lewin (Waterloo, Ont.)
- Hope this Story has a Happy Ending by Heather Simeney MacLeod (Kamloops, B.C.)
- You (Streetcar at Night) by Dorian McNamara (Halifax)
- Apple Cake by Aleksandra Merk (Fonthill, Ont.)
- What About Sam by Rachael Riley (Montreal)
- Lessons from a peach by Emi Sasagawa (Vancouver)
- Grocery List for the Common Witch by Claire Scherzinger (Bremerton, Wash.)
- On a Tuesday in November by Aaron Schneider (London, Ont.)
- Real is Love by Michelle Sinclair (Ottawa)
- My Father's Soil by Zeina Sleiman (Edmonton)
- Personnel Unknown by John Sudlow (Oakville, Ont.)
- Dirty Gert by Pamela van der Woude (Picton, Ont.)
- Mount Zoo by Paul Warren (Duncan, B.C.)
- How To Watch Your Daughter Die by Jessica Wegmann-Sanchez (Edmonton)
- Self Care by Erin Wilk (Kitchener, Ont.)
- Gold by Julia Williams (Calgary)
