Wind by Heather Birrell
CBC Books | Posted: November 10, 2022 1:00 PM | Last Updated: November 10, 2022
Heather Birrell has made the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for Wind.
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 Heather Birrell
Heather Birrell is the author of the Gerald Lampert award-winning poetry collection Float and Scurry, and two story collections, Mad Hope and I know you are but what am I? The Toronto Review of Books called Mad Hope "completely enthralling, and profoundly grounded in an empathy for the traumas and moments of relief of simply being human." She lives in Toronto with her mother, partner, two daughters and a whoodle named Angus.
Entry in five-ish words
"Farts I have known."
The source of inspiration
"I started writing this poem partly in response to a prompt the wonderful poet Lisa Richter provided in a workshop she led at the high school where I teach. The challenge was to write a poem that ennobled a person, place or thing that has a bad rap, or has been neglected or ignored. She used Rat Ode by Elizabeth Acevedo as a mentor text. It is fantastic and fierce.
Our bodies are so weird and vital and mysterious — they tell their own stories. - Heather Birrell
"Our bodies are so weird and vital and mysterious — they tell their own stories. And so do farts! Fart jokes are big in my family. What would happen, I thought, if we took them (more) seriously?"
First lines
In the sitting room
of a fussy bed and
breakfast — wing-backed
chairs, doilies, English
Midlands — my father (lowland
working class Scot) and my sister
and I (Canadian born,
"classless") share air with
an English fellow, straight-
backed and classy. The men
read newspapers.
of a fussy bed and
breakfast — wing-backed
chairs, doilies, English
Midlands — my father (lowland
working class Scot) and my sister
and I (Canadian born,
"classless") share air with
an English fellow, straight-
backed and classy. The men
read newspapers.
When my sister gets up
to grab a magazine
from the rack
in the corner, she
farts
so loudly
the cup
and saucer on the side
table tremble.
to grab a magazine
from the rack
in the corner, she
farts
so loudly
the cup
and saucer on the side
table tremble.
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.