Line Dufour has made the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for Asylum. If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize is open for submissions until November 1st.

A native Torontonian, Line Dufour was educated and worked in Toronto for several decades before moving to Quebec in 2021. Since 2016, she has been enrolled in creative writing courses at the University of Toronto, and is completing her certificate in creative writing, under the editorial guidance of Marina Endicott. She completed the Humber School for Writers program with Camilla Gibb as her mentor in 2020. Since then, she has obtained a Master of Arts with distinction in creative and critical writing from University of Gloucestershire. Her short stories have appeared in two anthologies, one published by La Maison de la Littérature in Québec City, and in the A World of Difference anthology published by the University of Gloucestershire. Her poem Finding the Words, along with the accompanying artwork will appear in Queen's Quarterly in April 2024.

"Days preceding my mother's suicide."

"Established in the 18th century, St Brigid's Home in Quebec City was a hybrid residential school not only for children whose parents were unable to look after them for one reason or another, but also for the elderly, providing them with bed and board as well as an infirmary facility. Coinciding with the trend of residential schools, were establishments that housed those with mental illness. The lack of historical information regarding the trends of non-Indigenous residential schools (in French called pensionnats) made me realize that this history, along with the demolition of these buildings, were deconstructing the stories of the children that were placed in them. De-institutionalization began in the 1950s, picking up momentum in the 1970s and '80s.

"With these new initiatives, many children were released from being wards of the government, into often perilous situations. Along with the disappearance of residential schools, mental health facilities were also being dismantled. Those with serious mental health issues often did not have families/parents willing or able to take responsibility for them, so they were left to their own devices. This dissolving of the residential care for those suffering from serious mental health illnesses, combined with the issues generated by the rebranding and recasting of the responsibilities of these institutions over the last 75 years, have resulted in society's negligence of these vulnerable and at risk individuals, and evidence is in the dramatic increase of homelessness."

Sarcophagus

It wasn't my mother's habit to call me every day, or even every week, but it all started a month ago, not long after her boyfriend had passed away.

"Men are breaking into my apartment and stealing things," or "Some men are trying to kill me." She had always been able to keep her fears and hallucinations concealed from her children, an instinctive maternal desire to shelter her offspring but now whatever resources she once had that enabled her to do that, had completely disintegrated.

I felt guilty for being impatient with her, but I knew it wasn't my mother talking.

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.