Machenka Eriksen has made the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for The Archaeologist's Last Visit.

The winner of the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have their work published on CBC Books and have the opportunity to 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. 22 and the winner will be announced on Sept. 29.

If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize is open for submissions until Oct. 31.

Machenka Eriksen is a daughter, sister, mother and grandmother. She is also a graduate student at the University of Victoria. She was born and raised on Coast Salish and North Straits Salish territories and is an avid reader and writer. She is especially drawn to creative nonfiction for its extraordinary storytelling capacity. She is happiest in nature and most at peace when swimming in the ocean.

"Charred stones, old yellowed bones"

"This story was inspired by memories of growing up on the Semiahmoo First Nation reserve, located on the southwest coast of B.C. In particular, by a pivotal moment in which I understood that my relationship with the community, lands and waters I called home was inherently different than that of my friends. This understanding would come to shape the rest of my life."

Josh and I are sitting on a boulder near the train tracks, having a smoke, when it happens. It happened before, but this is the first time I've seen it. An archaeologist comes to the rez.

He's carrying this big gray duffle bag filled with orange flagging, and some wooden sticks. The sticks are all the same size, blunt at one end and pointed at the other. He takes a mallet out of his bag, pounds the sticks in the ground and ties up the flagging in demarcated places just up from the beach, behind the tracks. It's not an obvious place. You have to look around to find it.

The winner of the 2021 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 the 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 2022 CBC Short Story Prize is currently open for submissions until Oct. 31, 2021.

The 2022 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January and the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April.