Charlie Petch has made the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for Hey You Lucy Liu.

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.

Charlie Petch is a disabled, queer and transmasculine multidisciplinary artist. A poet, playwright, librettist, musician, lighting designer and host, Petch was the winner of the Golden Beret lifetime achievement in spoken word with The League of Canadian Poets. They're also the founder of Hot Damn it's a Queer Slam. Petch is a performer, mentor and workshop facilitator. In 2021, they are launching Why I Was Late with Brick Books and Medusa's Children, a libretto, with Opera Q.

"Love in a gender neutral bathroom."

"The gender inclusive washroom set on Ally McBeal, my crush on Lucy Liu and decolonization."

I first saw you onscreen in the gender neutral washroom
all the lawyers shared in the legal drama, Ally McBeal
circa 1997. You — a top floor lawyer, a swan, a revelation
Me — merely a gaze, an unseen audience
just a closeted transmasculine teen wondering why
every washroom wasn't like this.

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.