Susan Carpenter has made the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for Troublesome Tit. 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 until November 1st.

Originally from Ontario, Susan Carpenter now lives in Calgary where she camps, sings show tunes and volunteers with her rescue pooch. With an Honours English BA from Western University and Humber's Creative Writing Certificate, Susan has published short fiction and nonfiction. The short film BrokeHer, that she wrote and acted in, premieres soon at festivals. Her YA novel was a finalist in Screencraft's Cinematic Book Contest. Susan teaches Sarah Selecky's The Story Intensive, is a contest reader for Prism Magazine, a manuscript reviewer for Alexandra Writers Centre Society and, with her husband and muse, co-parents a blended family of five boys.

"Radiation with Marvin the Martian." Or "Training in the art of invisibility."

"I felt healthy for a middle-aged woman before my breast cancer diagnosis and medical marathon. After chemo and surgery, I started radiation, which is a silent treatment for a silent disease that only showed up on a mammogram. And despite family and friend's support, I was anxious before starting another leg of my treatment. But a radiation tech's Marvin the Martian shoes and t-shirt reminded me that life is all a cartoon. I still have a sense of humour even if 'being disintegrated makes me angry.'"

Nurses sit at the entrance to Tom Baker Cancer Center just handing out masks now. No more bullying inquiries as to why I haven't been outside Canada. Done anything exciting in the past six months of fighting this disease. If I'm there for an appointment, I'm in like a VIP.

I have a friend who stopped asking questions too. Got tired of the monotony of my medical marathon, or busy with their own life. It's not ALL about me.

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.