Katie Martí has made the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for hydrodynamics.

The winner of the 2021 CBC Poetry 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 Nov. 18 and the winner will be announced on Nov. 24.

If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the CBC Nonfiction Prize opens in January and the CBC Poetry Prize opens in April.

Katie Martí is a poet, author, musician and teacher. She is a two-time winner of the Shuswap Association of Writers' Word on the Lake Writing Contest and was shortlisted for the Writers' Union of Canada Writing for Children Competition. Her work has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies, including Voices From The Valleys: Stories & Poems, which is about Life in B.C.'s Interior. Born in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal and raised in Mi'kma'ki/New Brunswick, these days she lives on unceded Coast Salish traditional territory in Victoria with her partner and a very large cat named Ted.

"Study of humans in flight."

"I have a terrible memory. I used to consider this a deficit because it meant I could never really be confident in the accuracy of my own personal narrative. As a writer, however, and particularly through poetry, I have come to find enormous freedom and inspiration in the space between fact and fiction.

"I am fascinated by the ways in which we come to believe what we think we know is true, by the stories we tell with fingers crossed behind our backs and by the uniquely human craft of weaving an identity from these tenuous threads."

i do not remember houston
or the hotel pool
where you taught me
to swim
they say you tossed me in
the deep end
and when i sputtered to the surface
everyone cheered
ta-da!
but stories are not memories
so i do not remember houston
or the hotel pool
though i would like to
feel the wonder of being weightless
again for the very first time and
hear the rounded edges of your voice
as you scoop me up and parade me around

The winner of the 2021 CBC Poetry 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 Nonfiction Prize will open in January. The 2022 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April.