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 2022 CBC Nonfiction Prize.
The finalists are:
- Your House by Cayenne Bradley (Victoria, B.C.)
- Advice to a New Beekeeper by Susan Cormier (Langley, B.C.)
- Seh Woo, My Teeth by Kerissa Dickie (Fort Nelson, B.C.)
- Tek Tek by Y. S. Lee (Kingston, Ont.)
- Storkatorium by Jane Ozkowski (Bloomfield, Ont.)
The stories were selected from more than 1,700 entries received from across Canada. The public can read the shortlisted stories on cbcbooks.ca. The winner of this year’s prize will be announced on Thursday, September 22.
The 2022 CBC Nonfiction Prize jurors are Marcello Di Cintio, Sharon Butala and Jenna Butler.
Sharon Butala is the author of 21 novels and nonfiction books, including The Perfection of the Morning, Where I Live Now, Zara's Dead, Fever and Wild Rose. Her most recent book, a collection of essays called This Strange Visible Air: Aging and the Writing Life, was published fall 2021. She is a three-time Governor General's Literary Award nominee and received the Marian Engel Award in 1998. She has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize, the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Crime Writers of Canada Best Crime Novel award. Butala was born in Nipawin, Sask. She became an officer of the Order of Canada in 2002.
Jenna Butler is a writer, environmentalist and professor currently living in Alberta. She has written six books, most recently a collection of essays titled Revery: A Year of Bees, which was shortlisted for the 2021 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction. Her other books include the poetry collections Seldom Seen Road, Wells and Aphelion; the essay collection A Profession of Hope and the travelogue Magnetic North. She teaches writing at Red Deer College.
Marcello Di Cintio is the author of five books of creative nonfiction, including Walls: Travels Along the Barricades which won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Palestine in the Present Tense, winner of the W. O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize. Di Cintio has served as a writer-in-residence at the Calgary Public Library, the University of Calgary and the Palestine Writing Workshop. Di Cintio's newest book is Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers, which CBC Books named one of the best Canadian nonfiction books of 2021 and was on the 2022 Canada Reads longlist.
In addition to a cash prize of $6,000 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.
Visit cbcbooks.ca for the complete CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist or for more information on the CBC Literary Prizes.
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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 cbc.ca/books.
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, Chinese, Punjabi and Tagalog, 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, with a mandate to "foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts."
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:
Astoria Luzzi
CBC PR
astoria.luzzi@cbc.ca
416-779-6612
Diane Hargrave
Diane Hargrave Public Relations
dhprbks@interlog.com
416-467-9954
