Marina Nemat has made the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for Red Shoe. 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.

Marina Nemat is the author of Canada Reads 2012 contender Prisoner of Tehran and After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed, published in 30 countries. She has received various international awards and has given talks at high schools, universities and conferences worldwide. She teaches memoir writing at the School of Continuing Studies at University of Toronto and is working on a book based on her paternal grandmother's escape from Russia to Iran in 1917. Despite the traumas she has lived, she finds joy and peace in her dog, Alia, her modest, little cottage and all the beauty that Canada's forests and lakes offer in abundance.

"War, survival, and dealing with trauma."

"When Russia invaded Ukraine, and I watched it on the news, memories of the Iran-Iraq war, which I had experienced firsthand, came back to life. I had avoided revisiting them, even though I have written two memoirs, Prisoner of Tehran and After Tehran, about my two years as a political prisoner in Evin prison in Tehran. About two years ago, I couldn't contain my memories of war any longer and put them on the page."

My mother stirs the stew simmering on the stovetop, and my eyes fix on the blue flames dancing under the cast iron pot. I breathe in the scent of beef, tomato paste and dried Persian limes. Mama wipes the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. I wish my hands were like hers with long fingers and perfect nails. There are a few age spots on her skin, and they make me think of memories turning into tattoos, or henna patterns telling stories like a living book.

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.