Meet the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize readers
Every year, CBC Books enlists the help of established writers and editors from across Canada to read the thousands of entries submitted to our prizes.
Our readers compile the longlist, which is given to the jury. The jury then selects the shortlist and the eventual winner from the longlisted selections. The shortlist will be announced on Sept. 22 and the winner will be announced on Sept. 29.
The winner of the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, attend a two-week writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and have their work published on CBC Books.
Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and will have their work published on CBC Books.
If you are interested in entering the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize is open and accepting submissions until Oct. 31, 2021.
The 2022 CBC Nonfiction Prize opens in January and the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April.
Here are the 12 writers who served as readers for the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize
andrea bennett
andrea bennett is a National Magazine Award–winning writer and editor and the author of two travel guides, one book of poetry and the essay collection Like a Boy but Not a Boy, which was one of Autostraddle's best queer books of 2020. CBC Books named Like a Boy but Not a Boy one of the best Canadian nonfiction titles of 2020. andrea's nonfiction has been published by publications such as the Globe and Mail, the Walrus, Hazlitt, Xtra, Reader's Digest and Chatelaine.
Annahid Dashtgard
Annahid Dashtgard is the author of the memoir, Breaking the Ocean: Race, Rebellion and Reconciliation and the co-founder of the inclusion company, Anima Leadership. She has had pieces published in publications such as the Humber Lit Review, Prairie Fire, CBC Books and Room magazine, and is the host of the podcast Soundwaves of Belonging. She is currently at work on her second nonfiction book, a collection of personal stories illuminating the universal striving for home, called Bones of Belonging.
Marcello Di Cintio
Marcello Di Cintio is the author of five books of creative nonfiction, including Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Palestine in the Present Tense, Walls: Travels Along the Barricades and Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers. His books have won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and the W. O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize. Di Cintio's writing can also be found in The International New York Times, Afar and Canadian Geographic.
Antonio Michael Downing
Antonio Michael Downing is a musician, writer and activist based in Toronto. He grew up in southern Trinidad, Northern Ontario, Brooklyn and Kitchener. His debut novel, Molasses, was published in 2010 and his memoir, Saga Boy, in which Downing explores his many alter-egos and his lifelong search for his Black identity, was released in early 2021. He performs and composes music as John Orpheus.
Eva Holland
Eva Holland is a Yukon-based freelance writer specializing in narrative nonfiction. She is a correspondent for Outside magazine, and her work for magazines and newspapers has been anthologized in The Best American Science and Nature Writing, The Best Women's Travel Writing and Best Canadian Sports Writing. Her first book is Nerve: A Personal Journey Through the Science of Fear.
Tyler LeBlanc
Tyler LeBlanc is a writer, journalist and historian living in Kjipuktuk (Halifax). He holds a BA in political science and history from Saint Mary's University and a Bachelor of journalism and MFA from the University of King's College. His work has appeared in magazines in Canada and the United States. His first book, Acadian Driftwood: One Family and the Great Expulsion, was published in 2020.
Joshua Levy
Joshua Levy is a writer of creative nonfiction, fiction and poetry. He was the 2018 CBC/Quebec Writers' Federation writer-in-residence. His first book of poetry, The Loudest Thing, was published in 2019. He made the 2017 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for My Brother's Engagement. He is currently completing a novel and lives in Montreal.
Ethan Lou
Ethan Lou's Field Notes from a Pandemic was named among CBC Books' best Canadian nonfiction of 2020. His writing has appeared in publications such as the Guardian and the Washington Post. Lou is a former Reuters reporter and has served as a visiting journalist at the University of British Columbia. His next book, Once a Bitcoin Miner, will be published in October 2021.
Michelle Porter
Michelle Porter is a writer, editor and researcher living in St. John's. She was born on the prairies and is a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation. Her fourth book, Scratching River, is a creative nonfiction exploration of Métis home, mental illness and mobility. She is also the author of Approaching Fire. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow with Memorial University, with a project investigating rural homelessness and housing. She made the 2019 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for Fireweed.
Paula Jane Remlinger
Paula Jane Remlinger's work has appeared in publications such as On Spec, CV2, Room, Grain, Prairie Fire and The New Quarterly. She has a MA in English from the University of Saskatchewan and an MFA from the University of British Columbia. Her first book, This Hole Called January, won the Saskatchewan Book Award for poetry in 2020. She lives in Beaver Creek, Sask., where she edits a variety of projects and writes for both children and adults.
Marjorie Simmins
Marjorie Simmins is a journalist, teacher and writer. Her nonfiction titles include Coastal Lives, Year of the Horse and Memoir: Conversations and Craft. Simmins won a gold medal at the National Magazine Awards for One-of-a-Kind Journalism, and two Gold Medals at the Atlantic Journalism Awards. In November 2020, she was awarded the Established Artist Recognition Award by Arts Nova Scotia.
Teresa Wong
Teresa Wong is the author of the graphic memoir Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression, a finalist for The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize and longlisted for Canada Reads 2020. Her comics have appeared in The Believer, The Rumpus and Event Magazine. She teaches memoir and comics at Gotham Writers Workshop and is the current Canadian writer-in-residence at the University of Calgary.
