Feeding the fire by Francine Cunningham
CBC Books | Posted: November 10, 2022 1:00 PM | Last Updated: November 16, 2022
Francine Cunningham has made the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for Feeding the fire.
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.
About Francine Cunningham
Francine Cunningham is an Indigenous writer, artist and educator. She currently spends her summer days writing on the prairies and her winter months teaching in the north. Her debut book of poems, On/Me, was nominated for the B.C. and Yukon Book Prize, an Indigenous Voices Award and the Vancouver Book Award. Her debut book of short stories, God Isn't Here Today, is a book of Indigenous speculative fiction and horror. Her first children's book, What if bedtime didn't exist, will be out in 2024 with Annick Press.
Entry in five-ish words
"Rage, Sorrow, Honour, Tradition, Connection."
The source of inspiration
It came from a place of needing to lift the voices of those who can't speak, of those who were stolen and buried, and who are now screaming their stories for those who will listen. - Francine Cunningham
"This poem came from many places; of grieving, of rage, of extreme sorrow, and of love for family, history and all those who came before me to allow me this time and space to live, to write, and to tell our story. It came from a place of needing to lift the voices of those who can't speak, of those who were stolen and buried, and who are now screaming their stories for those who will listen. This poem is a part of a longer work that I have been writing that examines my life, my ancestors, and those whose lives made mine possible."
LISTEN: CBC Radio Active's interview with longlisted poets Francine Cunningham and Christian Wayne
First lines
— Feeding the Fire
dreams set me as recorder for a future already happened
i can't change it
i can only tell its story
i can only tell its story
announcements of little graves being found all along this country
children dead in ground not of their homelands
put there by evil who
hid them to not be found
as knowledge of what they did would burn them for eternity
children dead in ground not of their homelands
put there by evil who
hid them to not be found
as knowledge of what they did would burn them for eternity
About the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize
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.