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The Archaeologist's Last Visit by Machenka Eriksen

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

The Victoria writer is on the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist

Image | Machenka Eriksen

Caption: Machenka Eriksen is a writer based in Victoria. (Submitted by Machenka Eriksen)

Machenka Eriksen has made the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for The Archaeologist's Last Visit.
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 Machenka Eriksen

Machenka Eriksen is a queer neurodivergent writer who enjoys creative nonfiction and speculative science fiction. Born and raised in Coast Salish Territories, Machenka is a PhD graduate of the University of Victoria and a passionate advocate for transformative ecological living and disability justice. She currently works as a specialized tutor and academic learning strategist.
Eriksen has previously longlisted four times for the CBC Nonfiction Prize for earlier versions of The Archaeologist's Last Visit in 2021, 2019, 2017 and 2016.

Entry in five-ish words

"Charred stones, old yellowed bones."

The story's source of inspiration

"This story was inspired by memories of growing up in Semiahmoo First Nation Territory, located on the southwest coast of B.C. In particular, by a pivotal moment in which I understood that my relationship with the community, lands and waters I called home was inherently different than that of my Indigenous friends. This understanding would shape my educational journey, activism and everyday life."

First lines

It's June 1972. Josh and I are sitting on a boulder near the train tracks, having a smoke when it happens. It happened before, but this is the first time I've seen it. An archeologist comes to the rez. He's carrying this big grey duffel bag filled with orange flagging, and some wooden sticks. The sticks are all the same size, blunt at one end and pointed at the other. He takes a mallet out of his bag, pounds the sticks in the ground and ties up the flagging in demarcated places just up from the beach, behind the tracks. It's not an obvious place. You have to look around to find it.

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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