Alice Switocz Goldbloom has made the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for I am Alice. The shortlist will be announced on Sept. 14 and the winner will be announced on Sept. 21.

If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize is open for submissions.

Alice Switocz Goldbloom writes, edits and shares her essays, and those by other writers, on the weekly newsletter A Considerable Age. She has a BA and MA from Carleton University and in recent years, she studied creative writing at the University of Toronto and editing at Simon Fraser University. A first-generation Polish Canadian, she was born and raised in Sarnia. She resides in Montreal and is currently completing a memoir.

"Childhood memories revisited."

"A series of end-of-life conversations with my father about his childhood and war experiences as a member of the Polish resistance ignited a spark within me to start writing my own stories. I am Alice is the first story of a series."

My father was already at the steering wheel of our old aqua-blue Ford Meteor when my mother deposited us, one by one, onto the hard rear seat. He looked impatient as the engine idled, spewing exhaust into the cold December air, and I had never seen him that way before. There we were — three sisters sitting ramrod straight, six little feet in black patent Mary Janes sticking straight forward.

The winner of the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have their work published on CBC Books and win a two-week writing residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.

The 2024 CBC Short Story Prize is currently open until Nov. 1, 2023 at 4:59 p.m. ET. The 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January 2024 and the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April 2024.