Montreal, November 14, 2018 – CBC BOOKS, CBC’s home for literary content, together with partners the Canada Council for the Arts and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, today announced Natalie Lim as the 2018 winner of the CBC Poetry Prize.
Lim, of Vancouver, British Columbia has won the grand prize for Arrhythmia. The poem was selected from more than 2600 works submitted from across the country. Arrhythmia is available to read at CBCBooks.ca.
As this year’s grand-prize winner, Lim will receive $6000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and her poem will be published on CBC Books. She will also receive a writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
The jury was composed of poet Jordan Abel, writer and social worker Kai Cheng Thom and singer and songwriter Ruth B., who said:
“Arrhythmia is a haunting lyric tribute to the love that endures across borders, time, and loss of language. Sweeping across the oceans of cultural difference that divide the generations of the Chinese-Canadian diaspora, the narrator speaks in both English and remnants of her ancestral Cantonese to give voice to a story too often unremembered in the colonial narrative of Canada’s creation. With deft precision and arresting emotional depth, Arrhythmia is both grand and intimate in scope, evoking at once the stories of Chinese labourers on the Canadian Pacific Railway and the complex relationship between a grandmother and granddaughter who do not speak the same tongue. Lovely, mournful, and hopeful all at once, Arrhythmia is a poem that does honour to all the ancestors who dreamed that their children might find a better life in the land the elders once called Golden Mountain."
Natalie Lim is a poet, occasional musician, unashamed nerd, and soon-to-be-graduate of the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. “Arrhythmia” is her first published work. More than anything, she loves stories – whether told through a book, podcast, or video game – and she hopes to keep writing them for the rest of her life.
CBC Books also announced Mario Brassard as the winner of the French-language grand prize for Séconal. For more information, go to Radio-canada.ca/icionlit under the “Prix de poésie” tab.
The four runners-up for the 2018 CBC Poetry Prize will each receive $1000 from the Canada Council for the Arts. They are: Sanita Fejzic (Ottawa, Ontario) for Mother; Neil Griffin (Victoria, British Columbia) for Canadian Immigration Services Citizenship Exam; Julie Mannell (Toronto, Ontario) for Phone Sex with a One Time Lover on the West Coast; and Bola Opaleke (Winnipeg, Manitoba) for The Autobiography of Water.
For more information on the awards, 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 public arts funder, with a mandate to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. The Council champions and invests in artistic excellence through a broad range of grants, services, prizes and payments to professional Canadian artists and arts organizations. Its work ensures that excellent, vibrant and diverse art and literature engages Canadians, enriches their communities and reaches markets around the world. The Council also raises public awareness and appreciation of the arts through its communications, research and arts promotion activities. It is responsible for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, which promotes the values and programs of UNESCO in Canada to contribute to a more peaceful, equitable and sustainable future. The Canada Council Art Bank operates art rental programs and helps further public engagement with contemporary arts.
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
