At the Holy Well by Howard Anglin
CBC Books | Posted: November 10, 2022 1:00 PM | Last Updated: November 10, 2022
Howard Anglin has made the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for At the Holy Well.
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 Howard Anglin
Howard Anglin is a DPhil student at the University of Oxford. He has written about culture, food, law and politics for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Maclean's, the CBC, Global, The Hub and The Line, but until now he has written poetry only as a private compulsion. He received a BA in English literature from McGill University, focusing on 20th century Canadian poetry. He also holds a JD from New York University and an MPhil from Oxford. Anglin splits his time between Oxford, Calgary and Vancouver Island.
Entry in five-ish words
"The transformative power of holiness."
The source of inspiration
I took some photographs and from time to time I would look at them and try to put into words my experience of the place. - Howard Anglin
"Visiting an ancient shrine built around a spring on the west coast of Ireland, not far from the Cliffs of Moher. I don't know what I was expecting when I saw the sign by the road and pulled over to check it out, but it was not what I found. I took some photographs and from time to time I would look at them and try to put into words my experience of the place."
First lines
At the Holy Well of St Brigid, County Clare
The whitewashed lintel forces me to stoop,
and it takes some seconds for my eyes
to settle on the clutter. The walls
are papered thick with family relics,
photographs and letters, a foliage
of fading pages pinned or stuck somehow
in layers legible, illegible,
damp leaves without the wind's relief,
a palimpsest of hopes embellished with
tin medals, paper flowers, and plastic saints.
and it takes some seconds for my eyes
to settle on the clutter. The walls
are papered thick with family relics,
photographs and letters, a foliage
of fading pages pinned or stuck somehow
in layers legible, illegible,
damp leaves without the wind's relief,
a palimpsest of hopes embellished with
tin medals, paper flowers, and plastic saints.
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.