Ashley-Elizabeth Best has made the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for My Grief is a Violence.

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.

Ashley-Elizabeth Best is a disabled poet and essayist from Kingston, Ont. Her debut collection of poetry, Slow States of Collapse, was published with ECW Press. Best's chapbook Alignment was published with Rahila's Ghost Press in 2021.

"Grief, gun violence, home and love."

"In October 2021, my partner and I became the victims of a drive-by shooting. My Grief is a Violence is a meditation on the loss of our home, loss of safety and rebuilding our lives in the aftermath of such a traumatic event."

Grandma's house, 1999: lady beetles clutter window sills
ping off the rafters as a summer storm crescendos
against the house. Table tops rimed with pine pollen,
Papa walking down to the shop, Grandma's arms in the sink;
life ahead, a loitering tenderness.

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.