The Swell That Follows by Bianca Bernstein
CBC Books | Posted: September 12, 2024 2:01 PM | Last Updated: September 12
The Montreal writer is on the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist
Bianca Bernstein has made the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for The Swell That Follows.
The winner of the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and have their work published on CBC Books. The four remaining finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.
The shortlist will be announced on Sept. 19 and the winner will be announced on Sept. 26.
If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize is open for submissions until Nov. 1. The 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January and the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April.
About Bianca Bernstein
Bianca Bernstein is a psychiatrist living in Tio'tia:ke/Montreal, where she grew up. She completed a Graduate Certificate at the Humber School for Writers in 2022, having been awarded the Joe Kertes Scholarship. Her work is forthcoming in This Magazine in 2025. She is currently writing an autofiction novel about being raised by two mimes.
Entry in five-ish words
"A psychiatrist grieves patient suicide."
The story's source of inspiration
"When I started practicing, I knew patient suicide would be inevitable, and that when it came, it would hit hard. Still, I was unprepared for the deluge of devastation that struck after one of my patients jumped in the metro. No-one really spoke about the rawness, the looping, the razing of all clinical confidence, nor did they speak about the choppy route towards recuperating any sense of peace — which, for me, happened by looking up at the stars. I'm hoping this essay will crack open a space for anyone who's lost someone to suicide."
First lines
The day he jumped in front of the metro was the first day of spring. I was at my desk checking emails. "Brian killed himself," one said. Then everything went white. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, but the desk had fallen away.
I had a patient scheduled right after I read the email. Someone with a hoarding problem. Nothing life or death. Nothing I remembered. I met with them and wrote my note, pretending everything was normal before calling Brian's mother.
If you or someone you know is struggling, here's where to get help:
- Canada's Suicide Crisis Helpline: Call or text 988.
- Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868. Text 686868. Live chat counselling on the website.
- Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention: Find a 24-hour crisis centre.
- This guide from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health outlines how to talk about suicide with someone you're worried about.
Check out the rest of the longlist
The longlist was selected from more than 1,400 submissions. A team of 12 writers and editors from across Canada compiled the list.
The jury selects the shortlist and the eventual winner from the readers' longlisted selections. This year's jury is composed of Michelle Good, Dan Werb and Christina Sharpe.
The complete longlist is:
- The Memory Tree by Laura Anderson (Victoria)
- The Sensibilities of Dogs by Antoinette Bekker (Medicine Hat, Alta.)
- The Swell That Follows by Bianca Bernstein (Montreal)
- On Not Knowing Cree by Ted Bishop (Edmonton)
- Awl by John Blackmore (Ottawa)
- My Father's Four Funerals by Lizz Bryce (Toronto)
- Quiz by Aaron Chan (Vancouver)
- Ice Safety Chart: Fragments by Aldona Dziedziejko (Rocky Mountain House, Alta.)
- The Archaeologist's Last Visit by Machenka Eriksen (Victoria)
- Teddys to Manhattan by Kelsey Gilchrist (Toronto)
- The Ferris Wheel by Julie M Green (Kingston, Ont.)
- A Quieter War by Batya Guarisma (Vaughan, Ont.)
- Green for Home, Always by Theresa Harold (Vancouver)
- All the King's Men by Paul Hetzler (Val-des-Monts, Que.)
- The Next Breath by Shana Hugh (Vancouver)
- Mitigoog Call Me Home by Tay Aly Jade (Winnipeg)
- Talking for a Living by Zilla Jones (Winnipeg)
- A Love Letter to the Super Tenant by Marianne Mandrukiak (Montreal)
- Senseless by Laura Mensinga (Stone Mills, Ont.)
- Glass Eyes by G. Robert Morrison (Montreal)
- Et Cetera, Etcetera, Etcetera by Maureen Ott (Ottawa)
- The Weight of the Crown by Deanna Patterson (Regina)
- Not in Their Names by Alison Pick (Toronto)
- Is Life a Tossed Salad? by Evelyn N. Pollock (Coldwater, Ont.)
- Ruth by Gordon Portman (Regina)
- Dad's the Word by Emi Sasagawa (Vancouver)
- Tomorrow, The Next Day, and the Day After That by Kelly S. Thompson (Colorado Springs, U.S.)
- The Weight of a Gaze by Salina Jane Vanderhorn (Deep River, Ont.)
- Random Acts of Walking or What An Australian Cockatoo Taught Me by Kelly Watt (Rockton, Ont.)
- Eyeball Tacos by Jessica Wegmann-Sanchez (Edmonton)