Karen Jury has made the 2019 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for The Chemo Country Club.

Karen has a master's degree in English from the University of Toronto and a Humber College certificate in creative writing, combined with more than 15 years of corporate communications experience in publishing, grocery, mining and insurance. She has climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia, eaten a mopane worm in Africa, travelled 1,000 metres underground in Quebec and 3,600 metres above sea level in Ecuador all while balancing four kids, a quirky husband and a slightly off rescue beagle; the stories almost write themselves.

"How to accept the unacceptable."

"The inspiration for this story was taken from a line in the Woody Allen movie Annie Hall, 'I would not want to join a club that would have me as a member.' It took me a long time to accept the inconvenient truth that I was a cancer patient and would remain so for the rest of my life. I wanted to share the day-to-day or month-to-month realities behind never-ending appointments, changing prognoses, heartbreaking scans and multiple injections while trying to keep it all together for the sake of friends, family and my own sanity. One of the support workers at the hospital once told me, 'Cancer is like riding a wild horse with no signs of slowing down or stopping and all you can do is hang on for dear life.'"

I make my way up to the 12th floor, wondering if those around me know where I'm going and why. There are only two reasons you walk onto this floor at this hospital: for a scheduled mammogram or to attend the monthly breast cancer clinic. Does anyone in this elevator know that I have stage 4 metastatic breast cancer? No, how could they, I barely even acknowledge it myself.

The winner of the 2019 CBC Nonfiction Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have their work published on CBC Books and attend a two-week writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.

The shortlist will be announced on Sept. 18, 2019. The winner will be announced on Sept. 25, 2019.