MacGregor wins the $6,000 grand prize and two-week writing residency for her story The Invisible Woman
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 Laura MacGregor of Waterloo, Ont. as the winner of the 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize. MacGregor’s story, The Invisible Woman, was selected from more than 1,300 entries.
As the grand-prize winner, MacGregor will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and her story has been published on CBC Books. MacGregor will discuss her winning piece on Bookends with Mattea Roach. The interview will air at a later date on CBC Radio and CBC Listen.
The 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize jurors Zoe Whittall, Danny Ramadan and Helen Knott, said this about MacGregor’s text:
“A moving, complex and lyrical exploration of what it means to mother a medically fragile child into adulthood: the exhaustion, anxiety, and grief of the everyday, and the barely contained rage at a system that fails to recognize the value of interdependency or disabled lives. What does it mean to witness the joy available to someone with complex needs, while shouldering the burden of being the one who cares for them? The Invisible Woman captures the heartbreak of service rooted in love when it is fractured during the COVID pandemic as a nurse wonders aloud whether 'someone like him' should be permitted access to a ventilator.”
Laura MacGregor said, “The Invisible Woman was my attempt to shift the light to illuminate both the child and the mother, to emphasize the labour and stories of mothers, and to assert that care cannot be a sum-zero game. That my story was heard and valued by brilliant Canadian memoirists, Zoe Whittall, Danny Ramadan and Helen Knott, is a gift.
“I am also someone who tends to say that I enjoy writing as a hobby. Winning the CBC Nonfiction Prize gives me the confidence to claim the title of writer, one who has a worthy story to tell. I am grateful to the CBC, the jury panel and the rich and diverse community of Canadian writers, who together, create spaces for writers to learn, grow and share their stories.”
The four runners-up for the 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize, who will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, are: Rachel Foster of Vancouver for Summer Ash; Jennifer McGuire of Owen Sound, Ont. for The First Apartment; Lena Palacios of Montreal for Cancer Stage Exit 4: A Memoir and Crystal Semaganis of Bear Island, Ont. for In Case I Die.
The winner of the Prix du récit Radio-Canada 2025 was also announced: Marie Sirois for Gestation. More information is available at ICI.Radio-canada.ca/icionlit.
For more information on the CBC Literary Prizes, please visit CBCBooks.ca.
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About CBC Books
Home to Canada Reads, Bookends with Mattea Roach, The Next Chapter with Antonio Michael Downing, and the CBC Literary Prizes, CBC Books connects Canadians with books, encouraging a shared love of reading and writing. For book news, reading lists, author interviews and more, visit 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: Dëne Sųłıné, Dene Kǝdǝ́, Dene Zhatıé, Eastern Cree, Dinjii Zhuʼ Ginjik, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun and Tłı̨chǫ. 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 on Treaty 7 territory 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 media inquiries, please contact:
Astoria Luzzi, CBC PR
astoria.luzzi@cbc.ca
