Johann Sarna has made the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for 2 Poems.

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.

Johann Sarna is a writer from Toronto. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Best New Poets, Washington Square Review and The Arkansas International, among others. He lives in Manhattan.

"Parts of the long query."

"It's hard to say. Some sections of Evening Poems I wrote six or seven years ago. Passage is more recent. You try things on the page and a word comes out of the one before it — sounds form affinities and weird resonances. I have been and continue to be inspired by Matthew Wong's paintings."

Passage

It was humid there. The delicacy of planets in that dream, of one waterfall in the distance, made your feet heavy on the steps. Your feet built them with their insistence. When we arrived, we took the train to the peacock pens.

I want to say
I love this world

moon's incaved edge
white narrowed to a lean scimitar

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.