Local author up for prize

Photo: Sharla Pike Photography

A Kelowna writer has been shortlisted for the 2016 CBC Creative Non-fiction Prize.

Shannon Linden's story "Eighteen" is among the five finalists.

Linden started storytelling as a child, but wasn't published until she and her husband sold everything and moved to the Middle East with small children in tow. The cultural experience enriched her worldview and launched her writing.

Linden taught elementary school, then journalism at Abu Dhabi Women's College and wrote for the Gulf News before returning to Canada. Now, she's a columnist and feature writer.

She's also working on a series of young-adult novels. 

The grand prize winner will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, publication in Air Canada enRoute magazine and a 10-day writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. The remaining finalists will receive $1,000.

The winner will be announced Sept. 21.

Leslie A. Davidson, Christine Higdon, Judith Timson, and Jack Neary are also shortlisted.

Here's an excerpt from Eighteen:

"What do you know at eighteen? A year short of official adulthood (if you mark that milestone with the legal ordering of a drink) you've barely dipped your foot beneath the surface of experience, but you're brazen enough to swim in any water."