33 writers make the 2019 CBC Poetry Prize longlist
Thirty-three writers from across Canada have been longlisted for the 2019 CBC Poetry Prize.
The complete longlist is:
- Notice of Assessment by Amy Alt (Montreal)
- Family Affair by Faith Arkorful (Toronto)
- To ride an art horse by Manahil Bandukwala (Mississauga, Ont.)
- Shelter Object by Stephanie Bolster (Pointe-Claire, Que.)
- Recipe Keeper by Sasha Carney (New Haven, Conn.)
- Root (six poems) by Franco Cortese (Thorold, Ont.)
- Breaking variations: on the death of the eldest sibling by Lily Gontard (Whitehorse)
- The Grolar Bear's Ballad by Catherine Greenwood (Victoria)
- Persephone and Translation by Erina Harris (Edmonton)
- A Song for Thunder Hills (after Terry McClintic) by Ashley Hynd (Kitchener, Ont.)
- If You Are Silent by Kyla Jamieson (Vancouver)
- Caribou by Allison LaSorda (Guelph, Ont.)
- kôhkomak, those who still dance by Darcy Lindberg (Edmonton)
- pê-kîwêw (she returns, she comes home) by Carley Lizotte (Fort Vermilion, Alta.)
- Nancy Ajram made me gay by Eli Tareq Bechelany-Lynch (Montreal)
- Home Tastes Just Like Fried Plantains by Silvana Morales (Anjou, Que.)
- Call me Fresh Meat by Lisa Mulrooney (Stony Plain. Alta.)
- Apartment 402 by Elizabeth Page (Kenora, Ont.)
- crux by Eleanor Peebles (Toronto)
- Love Poem with Elk and Punctuation, Prairie Storm and Tasbih by Alycia Pirmohamed (Calgary)
- Welcome Signs by Alycia Pirmohamed (Calgary)
- Families don't exist here by Pamela Porter (North Saanich, B.C.)
- Ode to the Half-Moon by Melanie Power (Montreal)
- Acceptance is a kind of dying by Kyeren Regehr (Victoria)
- Greyhound Depot, Cache Creek by Shaun Robinson (Vancouver)
- Iceland is Melting and So Are You by Talya Rubin (Montreal)
- You Left Something by Erin Soros (Toronto)
- Another Girl by Nayana Suchak (Toronto)
- Desolation by Kim Trainor (Vancouver)
- 12 by Sarah Tsiang (Kingston, Ont.)
- Nature's Culture by Kathleen Wall (Regina)
- Caribou in the Anthropocene by Cara Waterfall (Costa Rica)
- Mi'kmaq Moccasins by Marie Lawinonkie White (Lévis, Que.)
- Blue, Orphaned Rabbits and The Shearing by Erin Wilson (Massey, Ont.)
The longlist was selected from more than 2,500 English-language submissions. A team of writers and editors from across Canada compiled the list.
Five finalists will be selected by the jury, which is comprised of Lynn Crosbie, Olive Senior and Billy-Ray Belcourt. The jury will also select the winner.
The shortlist will be announced on Nov. 14 and the winner will be announced on Nov. 21.
The winner of the 2019 CBC Poetry Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, attend a two-week writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and have their work published on CBC Books. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and will have their work published on CBC Books.
The longlist for the French-language competition has also been revealed. To read more, go to Prix de poésie Radio-Canada.
The 2018 CBC Poetry Prize winner was Natalie Lim for Arrhythmia. You can read all the 2018 finalists' poems here.
The CBC Literary Prizes have been recognizing Canadian writers since 1979. Past winners include Michael Ondaatje, Carol Shields, Michael Winter and Frances Itani.
If you're a writer, you can join our Canada Writes Facebook group, a place where Canadian writers can connect and support each other.
If you're interested in entering the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2020 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January, the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April and the 2021 Short Story Prize will open in September.
For writers in Grades 7 to 12, The First Page student writing challenge is now open for submissions until Nov. 25, 2019.