Montreal, September 18, 2018 – 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, today announced Sandra Murdock as the winner of the 2018 CBC Nonfiction Prize.
Murdock, of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia has won the grand prize for Easy Family Dinners. The story was selected from more than 2000 works received from across the country. Easy Family Dinners is available to read at CBCBooks.ca.
As this year’s grand-prize winner, Murdock will receive $6000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and her story has been published on CBC Books. She will also receive a writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
The jury was composed of writers Scaachi Koul, Graeme Wood and Kyo Maclear, who said:
“This story is a small treasure: a model of controlled narrative, irony, and poignant surprise. Its author has a voice of great promise."
Born to a military family, Sandra Murdock grew up across Canada and in Germany. After graduate studies in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Murdock left academia to work with newcomers to Canada. She currently teaches English at an immigrant settlement agency. She has published poetry in Echolocation and The Antigonish Review, and is currently working on a creative nonfiction collection about her experiences with an alcoholic loved one. She lives with her son in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, on the unceded traditional territory of the Mi’kmaw people.
CBC Books also announced Diane Landry as the winner of the French-language grand prize for Adieu chacal. For more information, go to Radio-canada.ca/icionlit under the “Prix du récit” tab.
The four runners-up for the 2018 CBC Nonfiction Prize will each receive $1000 from the Canada Council for the Arts. They are: Lily Chang (Montreal, Quebec) for If I wax poetic the pain feels worthwhile; Kat Main (Calgary, Alberta) for How to Catch a Nightcrawler; Anastasia McEwen (Fergus, Ontario) for Acceleration; and Lee Thomas (Fredericton, New Brunswick) for True Trans.
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 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 national arts funder. Its grants and payments to artists and arts organizations benefit Canadians by ensuring a vibrant arts sector in Canada. In 2016-17, the Canada Council allocated 196.8 million dollars towards artistic creation and innovation through its grants, prizes and payments. It also conducts research, convenes activities and works with partners to advance the sector and help embed the arts more deeply in communities across the country. The Canada Council Art Bank is a national collection of over 17,000 Canadian contemporary artworks – all accessible to the public through rental, loan and outreach programs. The Canada Council also distributes payments to over 17,000 Canadian authors annually through the Public Lending Right (PLR) Program as compensation for free public access to their books in Canadian public libraries. The Canadian Commission for UNESCO operates under the general authority of the Canada Council.
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:
Nicola Makoway
Publicist, CBC Books
nicola.makoway@cbc.ca
416-205-7673
Diane Hargrave
Diane Hargrave Public Relations
dhprbks@interlog.com
416-467-9954
