The Rupture by Ayşe Lara Yildirim
CBC Books | Posted: November 7, 2024 2:30 PM | Last Updated: November 7
The Toronto writer is on the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize longlist
Ayşe Lara Yildirim has made the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for The Rupture.
The winner of the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and have their work published on CBC Books. The four remaining 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 Nov. 14 and the winner will be announced on Nov. 21.
If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize opens in January and the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April.
About Ayşe Lara Yildirim
Ayşe Lara Yildirim is a poet whose works have appeared in CV2 Animal Issue, Lucky Jefferson 365 collection, and Chickenscratch: An Anthology of Student Writing (Coach House Books, 2019 & 2020). Her fiction was on the Commended List for the Adroit Prizes (2023). She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from University of British Columbia and a BA in the Teacher Education Stream from Trent University.
Entry in five-ish words
"Queer longing becomes ancestral healing."
The poems' source of inspiration
"Restriction was initially inspired by researching garbage dump communities. That turned into researching how EU countries (and other countries) turn to Turkey (and other countries) to send their garbage. I learned about illegal landfills in my homeland. I found how cycles of harm are reproduced even within our garbage. All of this made me write a few poems. This was one of the poems.
I found how cycles of harm are reproduced even within our garbage. All of this made me write a few poems. - Ayşe Lara Yildirim
"SHE WHO LIVES started with a giant conch shell that I've had all my life. It's hard to pinpoint a single inspiration behind this poem but I know Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity by José Esteban Muñoz, my personal experience and family stories I carry in my body all played a role.
"The Rupture was inspired by my great-grandmother, who I share a first name with. It was a poem I wrote to connect with her. I've heard many stories about the woman she was, but I've never been to her village or her grave. Still, I feel a deep connection to her."
First lines
Restriction
she ate
the garbage bag
onyx large
breathing heavy
plastic itching her throat
she gagged
onyx bile
fingers
reached back
bits stuck
between her teeth
the garbage bag
onyx large
breathing heavy
plastic itching her throat
she gagged
onyx bile
fingers
reached back
bits stuck
between her teeth
Check out the rest of the longlist
The longlist was selected from more than 2,700 submissions. A team of 12 writers and editors from across Canada compiled the list.
The jury selects the shortlist and the eventual winner from the readers' longlisted selections. This year's jury is composed of Shani Mootoo, Garry Gottfriedson and Emily Austin.
The complete longlist is:
- Borderland by Howard Anglin (Calgary)
- on the last day of ramzan, the moon makes the sun in its image by Manahil Bandukwala (Ottawa)
- Lament by Jessica Bebenek (Montreal)
- Citrus Dreams by Elena Bentley (Clavet, Sask.)
- When it's 9:48pm and the kids are asleep and you realize you've spent the entire night on your phone by Nicole Boyce (Calgary)
- ABC Gum by Devlin (Halifax)
- scar/city I by Daniela Elza (Vancouver)
- I Thought I Might by Tamsyn Farr (Wakefield, Que.)
- Score Before Cutting by Claire Gordon (Ucluelet, B.C.)
- There is no neutral way to say I was fourteen by Cicely Grace (Vancouver)
- After Icebergs by Matthew Hollett (St. John's)
- a house in O's name by Eimear Laffan (Nelson, B.C.)
- Gas Station Coffee by Paula Lemke (Langley, B.C.)
- magdalene sonnets by Louie Leyson (Vancouver)
- 吃苦 (Eat the Bitterness) by Emily Yiling Ma (Burnaby, B.C.)
- Kananaskis by Kathleen McCracken (Belfast, Northern Ireland)
- A Tenuous Life Act, I Lay Dreaming by Sasha Pickering (Halifax)
- Regeneration and other poems by Katherine Poyner (Nanaimo, B.C.)
- Girls of the Now by Dora Prieto (Vancouver)
- No Apples and Oranges by Marion Quednau (Sechelt, B.C.)
- i'll expect big things from the moon later tonight by c. a. r. rafuse (Ottawa)
- Song for the Earth and the Water by Harold Rhenisch (Vernon, B.C.)
- Palimpsest County by Rachel Robb (Toronto)
- Doom Scroll by Jenny Sampirisi (Toronto)
- Northern Childhood by Eleonore Schönmaier (Ketch Harbour, N.S.)
- Some Notes on Intoxication and Simile: Like Butterscotch by Catherine St. Denis (Victoria)
- The Killer and the Harpist by Catherine St. Denis (Victoria)
- The Rupture by Ayşe Lara Yildirim (Toronto)