Sheila Brooke has made the 2018 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for The Curve of Forgetting.

Sheila Brooke has spent almost two decades alternating summers working as a wildfire lookout observer in Canada's boreal forest, winters working as a relief lighthouse keeper for the Canadian Coast Guard and in-between times in a small off-grid Gulf Islands, B.C., cabin. She also spends treasured intervals travelling, crewing sailboats and visiting with her daughter's family on the East Coast. Brooke is currently working on a book of essays.

A story of discovery and solitude.

"Seventeen seasons immersed alone in the wilderness on a remote boreal fire tower, trying simultaneously to hang on to my humanity and give it up."

"Multitude, solitude: they really are the same.

"Early spring; just a few weeks before almost three billion birds start arriving from different parts of the world to start nest-building in Canada's great boreal forest. I am a blip on the migratory species curve. Human, fire lookout, seasonal. There are about 125 of us in Canada."

The winner of the 2018 CBC Nonfiction Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have their story published on CBC Books and attend a 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 story published on CBC Books.