Ellie Sawatzky has made the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for On Crete.

The shortlist will be announced on Nov. 17 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.

Ellie Sawatzky is a writer, editor, and teacher who grew up in Kenora, Ont., and now lives in Vancouver. A past winner of CV2's Foster Poetry Prize and a finalist for the 2019 Bronwen Wallace Award, her work has been published widely in literary magazines across North America. Her debut poetry collection, None of This Belongs to Me, was published in 2021.

Sawatzky was also longlisted for the 2019 CBC Short Story Prize for The Study of Hidden Animals.

"Father-daughter bonding in Greece."

"I turn to poetry when I'm trying to make sense of conflicting feelings; I find that poetry holds space for contradictions, allows for a certain fluidity of truth. I was inspired to write this poem as a way of processing my feelings about a very strange, very sad, and very sweet trip with my dad on the island of Crete in 2019. Both my parents came to meet me in Greece, where I had been traveling, but my mom left early and returned to Winnipeg when we received news that her mother, my grandmother, was dying. My dad and I chose to stay in Greece and continue with the trip as planned — a decision that left us both feeling guilty and heartbroken, though we didn't talk about it. Simultaneously, I was grateful for the rare opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with my dad. This poem came from a place of wondering about what went unspoken between a father and his adult daughter on this profound occasion, about the funny ways humans show care, divert grief, and seek symbols in nature to make sense of — and validate — our lives and our love."

Dad and I are sweet to each other, knowing
Mom's not here to be our mediator. We've never
traveled just the two of us. End of April. Every day

dark clouds rove the olive groves outside
our Airbnb. The cold, chemical-bright surface
of the pool jumps at the invasion of raindrops,

raises helpless fists. The neighbour brings us
fresh eggs, jugs of sour wine. We pass time,
side by side in silence unfurling laundry

The winner of the 2022 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 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January. The 2023 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April.