Caribou by Allison LaSorda

2019 CBC Poetry Prize longlist

Image | Allison LaSorda

Caption: Allison LaSorda is a poet from Guelph, Ont. (Nadine Sander-Green)

Allison LaSorda has made the 2019 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for Caribou.
The winner of the 2019 CBC Poetry Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts(external link), have their work published on CBC Books(external link) and attend a two-week writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity(external link). Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts(external link) and have their work published on CBC Books(external link).
The shortlist will be announced on Nov. 14, 2019. The winner will be announced on Nov. 21, 2019.

About Allison

Allison LaSorda's writing has appeared in publications like Grain, Shenandoah, The New Quarterly and Hazlitt, where she was nominated for a National Magazine Award for personal journalism.

Entry in five-ish words

Animals. Cognitive dissonance. Intimacy. California.

From the poem

In a moment I'll be self-conscious about his mirrored closet doors
my dry mouth and the fear that each body I confront enters my own.
I rode BART to live through winter as undead, a bloom of references
and green concern. The coastline a vortex I saw coming, like a man who fills
a doorway. When it's sunny we truly have the time of our lives. What we saw
were elk, by the way, just so you know, caribou are incredibly rare.

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