Aaron Tucker has made the 2022 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for A Cowboy's Work.

The winner of the 2022 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. 15 and the winner will be announced on Sept. 22.

If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize is currently open for submissions until Oct. 31, 2022.

Aaron Tucker is a poet and novelist whose latest collection, Catalogue d'oiseaux, was published by Book*hug Press in spring 2021. His novel Y was translated into French by Rachel Martinez as Oppenheimer and was published by Éditions La Peuplade in 2020. He is currently a PhD candidate in cinema and media arts at York University studying facial recognition technologies. He was born in Vernon, B.C., on the territory of Syilx people and currently lives in Toronto.

"Making peace or not with the cowboy."

"There were two pictures that were the inspiration for this piece — both of which are mentioned in the story. The first is a recent photo of an American border guard, on horseback, chasing down migrants in a violent and disgusting fashion.

"The second is a black and white photo of my great-grandfather in his cowboy gear with his horse. I wanted to consider these photos side-by-side as a way of challenging my own love and histories as they relate to cowboy culture."

The photo: the man's white cowboy hat sits firmly on his head, shading his face and determined bite as he reaches down; his right fist is closed as he leans off his horse, rising out of his saddle so that his weather-worn chaps lift slightly from his legs and his beaten boots come out of the stirrups. The horse, a deep chestnut brown, is steadying itself on the scrubby slope as its hooves kick dust from the dried grass along the hillside; the bit in its mouth is pulling its mouth back into a grimace.

It is a cowboy in fluid and graceful blending with his animal, the pair a massive combination of brute strength and nimble mobility.

The winner of the 2022 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 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 2023 CBC Short Story Prize is currently open for submissions until Oct. 31, 2022. The 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January 2023 and the 2023 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April 2023.