November 5, 2020 – 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, have announced the finalists for the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize.
The finalists are:
- Conversations with Niton, Have you ever fallen in love with a day by Selina Boan (Vancouver)
- alley/bird/ally by Hiromi Goto (Victoria)
- Tickling the Scar by Matthew Hollett (Montreal/St. John’s)
- Learning to Count by Emily Riddle (Edmonton)
- Adipose Glose by Andrea Scott (Victoria)
The poems were selected from 2,930 entries received from across Canada, which sets the mark for the most entries for the CBC Poetry Prize on record. The public can read the shortlisted poems on CBCBooks.ca. The winner of this year’s prize will be announced on Thursday, November 12.
The 2020 CBC Poetry Prize jury is comprised of Kaie Kellough, Dionne Brand and Stephen Collis.
Kaie Kellough is a poet, sound performer and fiction writer based in Montreal. His latest works are the poetry collection Magnetic Equator and Dominoes at the Crossroads, a short story collection. His debut novel, Accordéon, was a 2017 Amazon.ca First Novel Award finalist. Magnetic Equator won the 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize.
Dionne Brand is a renowned poet, novelist and essayist. Brand won both the Governor General's Literary Award and the Trillium Book Prize for her volume Land to Light On. Her book of poetry, Ossuaries won the 2011 Griffin Poetry Prize. Her latest books are The Blue Clerk, an essay poem which won the 2019 Trillium Book Award and Theory, a novel, which won the Bocas Fiction prize. She was poet laureate of Toronto and is a member of the Order of Canada.
Stephen Collis is the author of a dozen books of poetry and prose, including The Commons, On the Material, Once in Blockadia and Almost Islands: Phyllis Webb and the Pursuit of the Unwritten. In 2019, he was awarded the Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize, which honours a poet for their body of work. He lives near Vancouver and teaches poetry and poetics at Simon Fraser University.
In addition to a cash prize of $6000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Grand Prize winner will receive a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and will be published on the CBC Books website. The four other finalists will each receive $1000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and will be published on CBC Books.
For more information on the CBC Literary Prizes, please visit CBCBooks.ca.
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About CBC Books
Home to Canada Reads, Writers & Company with Eleanor Wachtel, The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers, Canada Writes and the CBC Literary Prizes, CBC Books connects Canadians with books, encouraging a shared love of reading and writing. For book news, writing challenges, reading lists, book recommendations and more, visit www.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. We also deliver content in Spanish, Arabic and Chinese, 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.
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 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.
For further information, contact:
Frances Bedford
Public Relations, CBC
416-205-7673
Diane Hargrave
Diane Hargrave Public Relations
416-467-9954
