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Teddys to Manhattan by Kelsey Gilchrist

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

The Toronto writer is on the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist

Image | Kelsey Gilchrist

Caption: Kelsey Gilchrist is a writer and copy editor living in Toronto. (Sydney Pelland)

Kelsey Gilchrist has made the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for Teddys to Manhattan.
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 Kelsey Gilchrist

Kelsey Gilchrist is a writer and copy editor living in Toronto. Born and raised in southern Alberta, she holds a B.A. in Economics from Carleton University. Her work has been published in The Ampersand Review and she was shortlisted for Geist magazine's 2024 PolterGeist Writing Contest. She is working on her first novel.

Entry in five-ish words

"A six-year-old's memories of 9/11."

The story's source of inspiration

"When 9/11 happened, I was six, and everything about it was so confusing. I wanted very badly to know what the grownups were talking about, but I struggled to understand what was going on. Why did it happen? What did it mean? What should we do about it? Now, I realize that the adults in my life didn't know the answers any more than I did.
"For years, I told this story at parties as a funny anecdote about what a weird child I was. But the more I told it, the more I wondered why my elementary school put on this bizarre used teddy bear drive in response to the attacks. As my mother expresses in the story, why would the children of the victims want our old toys?
"Perhaps the toy drive was less about providing comfort to the people affected by the attacks, and more about giving us — the people witnessing it from afar — something to do so we could feel as if we were helping. Of course, it also doubled as an opportunity to teach children certain values. It's hard to say what lesson I took from it in the end."

First lines

One morning before school when I am six years old, I watch planes fly into two buildings on tv and I think to myself, Mom doesn't usually let us watch this kind of movie.
My brother Paul and I aren't allowed to watch tv in the morning at all, usually. But we are allowed to watch the videos of the planes hitting, the tall towers crumbling like the store-bought cookies we only get to have on long car trips.

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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