Grocery List for the Common Witch by Claire Scherzinger
The Bremerton, Wash., writer is on the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize longlist
Claire Scherzinger has made the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Grocery List for the Common Witch.
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 You can submit an original, unpublished poem or collection of poems from April 1-June 1.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 Claire Scherzinger
Claire Scherzinger is from Markham, Ont., and currently lives in the woods of Washington State. Previous publications include science fiction magazines such as Giganotosaurus, Planet Scumm, Andromeda Spaceways and Mythaxis. Their poetry has been published in the Canadian arts and literature magazine Carousel, and they won first place in the 88th Writer's Digest Contest in the non-rhyming poetry category.
Previously, Scherzinger hosted the podcast Overly Dedicated, where they traveled across Canada to various artists' studios to survey the current state of Canadian art. She was also the writer, producer and sound designer for the podcast Arca-45672, a science fiction audio drama.
Entry in five-ish words
"Learning how to feel full."
The short story's source of inspiration
"I'm intrigued by the concept of hunger and feeling full, literally and philosophically. I'm always researching witches because that history is vital to understanding my sex; how the world used to treat women and how women will likely be treated tomorrow. I love to write stories in unconventional formats and I am always making lists to stay on top of tasks because I am endlessly busy and somewhat absent-minded. My partner also cooks extremely well, and so all of these things culminated in the form of two characters who I'd call 'difficult people' experiencing hunger. I would say my way of writing and developing characters is a form of list-making — they are based on a list of things I am interested in at a given moment."
First lines
Gala apples (x 4)
Do you remember this? It's our text chain the day after I miscarried:
5:46 pm
No Honeycrisp, pleaseeeeeee!!!
When I eat them I feel like I'm rubbing my molars with Kleenex!!!
Also get toilet paper, I've been using Kleenex since we ran out last night
5:47 pm
I suppose if you want one Honeycrisp for the charcuterie plate we're doing this week, fine
as long as you slice it thinly and we eat it with Iberico cheese, Medjool dates,
and prosciutto and green olives.
That's the only way I'll eat the apple.
5:48 pm
…crackers. also get crackers
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)
