Your Smell by Filomena Acosta
CBC Books | Posted: September 7, 2023 1:30 PM | Last Updated: September 7, 2023
2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist
Filomena Acosta has made the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for Your Smell. 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.
About Filomena Acosta
Acosta is a Chilean second-generation Canadian living in the Halton Region. Her story Little Ghosts was on the longlist for the CBC Nonfiction Prize in 2022, with other nonfiction works being found in magazines such as Reckoning and Tree and Stone; her speculative work could be seen in Augur Magazine. When not writing, she bides her time being a researcher at her local library and wondering what she will eat for dinner.
Entry in five-ish words
"People are just plain scent-imental!"
The story's source of inspiration
"I lost my sense of smell and taste, and it was devastating in all honesty. I attempted all types of training exercises to gain those senses back, and this writing was a reflection of that time. I wanted to capture both my feelings of unhappiness, of curiosity, as well as the wisp of the indomitable human spirit when we try to recover from things we thought we never could."
First lines
Scent is king. Since the beginning of time, scent has been the currency that transforms lives.
Think about it: how many of us spend hard-earned dollars to find the utmost perfect, utmost befitting signature perfume for ourselves? Why is it when we pass by a bakery, that aroma of yeasty, freshly baked bread carves a smile on our faces? We've all had moments of nose-wrinkling, eye-watering, diaphragm-convulsing sensations among the putrid reek of sewers and car exhaust and unwashed feet.
About the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize
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.