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Awl by John Blackmore

CBC Books | Posted: September 12, 2024 1:59 PM | Last Updated: September 12

The Ottawa writer is on the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist

Image | John Blackmore

Caption: John Blackmore is a writer living in Ottawa. (Submitted by John Blackmore)

John Blackmore has made the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for Awl.
The winner of the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts(external link), a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity(external link) and have their work published on CBC Books(external link). The four remaining finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts(external link) and have their work published on CBC Books(external link).
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(external link), 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 John Blackmore

John Blackmore is a writer living in Ottawa. He is originally from Newfoundland which is often the setting for his stories — This is What Winter Means, Like I was Fire, The Passage, The White Gorilla and Train to Buchans — that have either won, or been short- or longlisted for The Writers Union of Canada fiction. He has hosted a podcast featuring these stories and other writers' award-winners at Fresh New Shorts. Blackmore has recently completed a mystery and a young adult novel. He is an avid hiker, cross-country skier, and traveler, and always has at least three books on the go.
Blackmore was previously longlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize in 2013 and longlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize in 2012 for Train to Buchans.

Entry in five-ish words

"Simple expressions of love can be profound."

The story's source of inspiration

"I was interviewing relatives to help write a eulogy for a family member and their stories with commonplace items — sleighs, parking lots, muffins, awls — captured and elevated the profound sense of love and loss. Simple details became powerful images."

First lines

I hadn't thought of the cutter sleigh in years.
You know cutter sleighs? They're the sleighs you'd see on the cover of an Eaton's catalogue or a Christmas card. Dashing through the snow.
I was in the bakery up north. We used to go to that bakery every week in the summer to have coffee and share a muffin. It was the April after she had passed away.

Image | CBC Nonfiction Prize

Caption: The 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize shortlist will be announced on Sept. 19 and the winner will be announced on Sept. 26. (Ben Shannon/CBC)

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:

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