Entering the CBC Poetry Prize? Here are 3 writing tips from the 2019 jury
The 2023 CBC Poetry Prize is open for submissions until May 31, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. ET
The 2023 CBC Poetry Prize is now open for submissions!
You have until May 31, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. ET to submit your original, unpublished poem or collection of poems, up to 600 words in length. There is no minimum word requirement.
Lynn Crosbie, Olive Senior and Billy-Ray Belcourt were the judges for the 2019 CBC Poetry Prize.
The CBC Poetry Prize recognizes unpublished Canadian poetry. The winning author will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, attend a two-week writing residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point and have their work published on CBC Books. Four finalists will win $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.
To help you prepare your submission, CBC Books asked the former jurors for their best writing tips.
1. Read outside your genre
Lynn Crosbie says: "Good writers read but they don't steal. Read books certain not to influence you."
2. Know your intention
Billy-Ray Belcourt says: "Think of the poem as a unit of X, where X can be accusation, condemnation, revelation, bewilderment, romanticization, etc. This way, the emotional and/or intellectual rhythm of the poem will likely be more discernible to your readers. Put simpler: What does the poem want? What sorts of demands does it make of the world, of life, of the subject? Or, how does it register the demands of the subject, of life, of the world?"
3. Cut the clutter
Olive Senior says: "The best writing advice I have ever received is 'Cut!' Tough but worth heeding. We always start off with too many unnecessary words, phrases, flourishes."