Emily Austin is a juror for the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize — and wants to read your poems
You could win $6,000, a writing residency and have your work published
Emily Austin is an Ottawa-based writer. She studied English literature and library science at Western University. Her debut novel, Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, was longlisted for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour and shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award and the Ottawa Book Award. Austin's second novel is Interesting Facts About Space.
She is also the author of the poetry collection Gay Girl Prayers. Gay Girl Prayers reclaims Catholic prayers and passages from the Bible to empower young women and members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community. At once sassy and funny, this book celebrates cultural and societal differences.
Austin was announced as a juror for the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize alongside Shani Mootoo and Garry Gottfriedson.
The CBC Poetry Prize is open for submissions until June 1, 2024 at 4:59 p.m. ET. You can submit an original, unpublished poem or collection of poems. The submission will be judged as a whole and must be a maximum of 600 words (including titles).
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.
Austin spoke with Radio West host Sarah Penton about her poetry collection Gay Girl Prayers, the influence of social media and what she will be looking for in a great poetry entry.
Let's start off with Gay Girl Prayers. What was its inspiration?
I was writing a novel titled Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, which is about a morbidly anxious atheist, lesbian woman who stumbles into a job at a Catholic Church. And Gay Girl Prayers, reworks Catholic prayers and biblical passages to empower women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. So I actually wrote that poetry just sort of as a writing exercise while writing my book.
I submitted it on a whim to the Canada Council for the Arts and they gave me a small grant for it, which gave me the encouragement to pursue, fix it up and try to get it published.
That's so interesting because oftentimes when people have written poetry and fiction, there's always that question: how do you approach those different styles of writing? You were doing them in tandem. How did that work with your process?
I think they really lend themselves to each other, I find. When I write a poem, for example, sometimes I'll write a poem about something I'm writing in a novel in an attempt to try to get the creative juices flowing.
Sometimes I'll write a poem about something I'm writing in a novel in an attempt to try to get the creative juices flowing.- Emily Austin
And often, it doesn't turn out, being fiction. I tend to write fiction more than I write poetry. But in this case, I thought it worked better as poetry for what I was writing.
You are a juror on the CBC Poetry Prize panel. What is that like to be on the other end of it? Judging other people's work when as you said, you've submitted your own so many times.
It's very strange to be on this side of things. I'm really excited about it. I think I have a little bit of experience being a college professor so I was thinking of making up my own little rubric maybe. I'm not sure how I'm going to approach it, but I'm excited to read. I'm so excited to read all the different submissions and be on this side of the table.
What advice do you have for folks out there toiling away, working at their art, their craft? The big piece of advice you wish most people knew.
I think the biggest barrier to writing — there are a lot of barriers — but the biggest barrier, especially with poetry, is feeling unsure of yourself and dealing with that sort of imposter thought.
Opportunities like this poetry contest are a great way to dip your toe into sharing poetry.- Emily Austin
I think you just have to believe that you can do it. And opportunities like this poetry contest are a great way to dip your toe into sharing poetry. So my advice is really just submit.
What's the state of poetry in Canada right now, would you say?
That's a big question. I think there's a lot of wonderful poetry in Canada. There's a poet named Zoe Whittall who also writes fiction actually. So that's someone I've looked up to who is wonderful. I think there's so much great writing coming out of Canada. I'm really proud to be part of that community.
You can see the previous years of the CBC Poetry Prize winners. And that's another great little window into the talent that we have here.
You have a really strong social media presence as well. You're on Instagram and TikTok. I think sometimes we think of poetry as something done in solitude. Here you are with this big following on social media. How do you tie those two things together?
I'm a deeply introverted person and I've always been someone who is drawn to social media. I was on MySpace as a teenager, for example, and Tumblr. I think a lot of what we're trying to do when we write is connect with people. A lot of social media especially, TikTok, is building community and connecting with people and understanding more about other people's perspectives.
With writing, it's nice to have this opportunity of having two-way communication with people who are reading things that you write and vice versa. I love being able to communicate with poets and writers who I like and who tell you a little bit more about the response that you get through those platforms.
I'm writing books and poetry that deal a lot with topics relating to mental health and LGBTQIA+ people and I have been really surprised by the amount of messages that I get particularly from young queer people and particularly from young lesbian women.
With writing, it's nice to have this opportunity of having two-way communication with people who are reading things that you write and vice versa.- Emily Austin
That's who it mostly comes from and people and I think there is a huge demand for poetry and writing that people relate to. There is a lot of queer and LGBTQIA+ writing and there is a lot of writing that deals with mental health, but it gave me this nice window into how much more that's wanted.
Even at a higher level, I think having diverse voices in terms of other demographics. This is just a good little sample from my perspective of how well that's received. I'm sure it's the same with other groups as well. That's interesting and gives me a little hope. Often, social media it's a bit of a dumpster fire when it comes to interactions. But there's some good there, too.
Let's go back to the prize here. When you're one of the jurors, what are you going to be looking for when you're judging the CBC Poetry Prize this year?
I like poetry that has a unique voice and reflects personal insights, struggles and observations. I also love to be surprised when reading poetry. One way to do that, for example, is to use humor in poetry that deals with difficult topics. I'm not necessarily looking for humor specifically, though, but I love poetry that is unexpected.
Emily Austin's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
