Books by past CBC Nonfiction Prize finalists being published in 2024
Being a finalist for the CBC Nonfiction Prize can jump-start your literary career. Need proof? Here are seven books that were written by former CBC Nonfiction Prize finalists that are coming out this spring.
The 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize is open for submissions until March 1, 2024 at 4:59 p.m. ET.
You can submit original, unpublished nonfiction that is up to 2,000 words in length. Nonfiction includes memoir, biography, humour writing, essay (including personal essay), travel writing and feature articles.
The winner will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and will have their work published on CBC Books.
Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.
Takedown by Ali Bryan
Takedown tells the story of Rowan, a 16-year old wrestler who had planned to follow her boyfriend to college. But when an opportunity arises for her to make more money that will help her father, who is suffering from worsening ALS symptoms, she decides to join an illegal fight club instead. Rowan will have to learn some difficult life lessons while she navigates these troubling waters.
When you can read it: May 2024
Ali Bryan is a writer from Halifax currently based in Calgary. Her first novel, Roost, won the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction. Her second novel, The Figgs, was shortlisted for Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 2019. She published two books in 2023: Coq and The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships.
Bryan was longlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize in 2014 and in 2010. She was also a reader for the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize.
The Price of Cookies by Finnian Burnett
The Price of Cookies is a collection of 24 linked stories revolving around a series of characters all living in the same town. The short stories explore the themes of love and grief while also depicting each character's complex relationship with food.
When you can read it: May 2024
Burnett holds a doctoral degree in English pedagogy and teaches English online for a U.S. college. Their writing explores intersections of identity — fatness, mental health, disability, queer joy. They're currently working on an epistolary novel about a trans man trying to reconcile a complex relationship with his dead mother. Burnett was shortlisted for the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize.
Monsters, Martyrs, and Marionettes by Adrienne Gruber
In Monsters, Martyrs, and Marionettes, Adrienne Gruber explores the theme of motherhood through a collection of essays. It celebrates bodies, maternal bonds, beauty, but also the uglier side of parenthood, the chaos and even how close we are to death at any given moment.
When you can read it: May 1, 2024
Gruber is a poet and essayist originally from Saskatoon. She is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Q & A, and five chapbooks. She placed third in Event's creative non-fiction contest in 2020 and was the runner up in SubTerrain's creative non-fiction contest in 2023.
Gruber was longlisted for the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize for Clocks. In 2020, she made the CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for Our Feedback Loop, Our Fractal, Our Never-Ending Pattern. Gruber was also on the longlist for the 2016 CBC Poetry Prize for Better Birthing Through Chemistry.
Hazard, Home by Christine Lowther
The poetry collection Hazard, Home delves into the issues of urbanization, climate change and loss of biodiversity. Through her poems, poet Christine Lowther expresses her deep concern for all the living organisms inhabiting earth. The poems speak of the urgent need for change while also celebrating the beauty of nature.
When you can read it: Feb. 2024
Lowther is the editor of Worth More Standing: Poets and Activists Pay Homage to Trees and its youth companion volume. She is also the author of four poetry collections. In 2014, she was presented with the inaugural Rainy Coast Award for Significant Accomplishment. Lowther's memoir Born Out of This was shortlisted for the 2015 Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize. In 2016, Lowther won first place in the creative non-fiction category of the Federation of British Columbia Writers Literary Writes contest. She served as Tofino's Poet Laureate during the pandemic. Most recently, Lowther was one of the finalists for the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize for Enviromental Services.
Empires of the Everyday by Anna Lee-Popham
Anna Lee-Popham's debut poetry collection Empires of the Everyday explores the themes of modern city living, violence and dealing with artificial intelligence.
When you can read it: March 26, 2024
Lee-Popham is a poet, writer and editor in Toronto. She is a graduate of the MFA in creative writing at the University of Guelph, the Writer's Studio at Simon Fraser University and University of Toronto's School of Continuing Education creative writing certificate, where she received the Janice Colbert Poetry Award. Her writing was the first runner-up in PRISM international's Pacific Poetry Prize, shortlisted for the Fiddlehead's Creative Nonfiction Contest and has been recently published in Arc, Riddle Fence, Canthius and Autostraddle. She co-hosts the Emerging Writers Reading Series and was an editor at HELD magazine. Lee-Popham was on the longlist for the 2022 CBC Nonfiction Prize for In the Hours After.
This Is a Tiny Fragile Snake by Nicholas Ruddock
This Is a Tiny Fragile Snake is a picture book that explores various encounters with animals through 15 poems and illustrations. The book encourages its readers to respond with tenderness when coming across those animals. This Is a Tiny Fragile Snake is for ages 3 and up.
When you can read it: Feb. 2024
Nicholas Ruddock is a physician and writer who has worked in Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Yukon and Ontario. Has had novels, short stories, poetry published since 2002 in Canada, U.K., Ireland and Germany. He is married to the artist Cheryl Ruddock, with four children. He is the author of the 2021 novel Last Hummingbird of West Chile and previously made the 2016 CBC Poery Prize longlist for Storm as well as the 2016 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for The Hummingbirds. Most recently, Ruddock was shortlisted for the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize for his story Marriage.
Precedented Parroting by Barbara Tran
The poems in Precedented Parroting explore themes of loss, the natural world, Asian stereotypes and our feathered friends. It's also a book about survival through generations and how both loss and feathers can enable and necessitate flight.
When you can read it: Feb. 2024
Barbara Tran was born in New York City and is now based in Toronto. Her writing has appeared in Women's Review of Books, Ploughshares and The New Yorker. Honours include a MacDowell Colony Gerald Freund Fellowship, Pushcart Prize and Lannan Foundation Writing Residency. Tran was longlisted for the 2018 CBC Nonfiction Prize for Living Room.