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Mitigoog Call Me Home by Tay Aly Jade

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

The Winnipeg writer is on the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist

Image | Tay Aly Jade

Caption: Tay Aly Jade is a writer of mixed Anishinaabe-European heritage living in Winnipeg. (Gindalee Ouskun)

Tay Aly Jade has made the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for Mitigoog Call Me Home.
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 Tay Aly Jade

Tay Aly Jade (she/they) is a writer, speaker and activist of mixed Anishinaabe-European heritage. Taylor's work explores themes of identity, wellbeing, and social and climate justice. She has written and spoken for a wide range of national and international organisations, including the United Nations, Oxfam Canada and the Canadian Women's Foundation. They hold a Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management from Carleton University and an MA of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice from the University of British Columbia. Taylor is currently writing her first memoir.
Tay Aly Jade previously made the longlist for the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize for The Monarch and the Matriarch.

Entry in five-ish words

"A return to one's roots."

The story's source of inspiration

"I thought of the idea behind this piece while staring out my London flat window, writing one of my books in progress. Missing my parents greatly, I felt inspired by the wiigwaasaatigoog (birch trees) outside my window to write something that could connect me to my roots. As I began compiling research for the piece, I realised how influential mitigoog (trees) have always been, both throughout my life and as a more-than-human relation to my nation. The more I learn about trees, the more they inspire me."

First lines

My white grandma has a photo of me at four years old. Blue star on my t-shirt, feet planted on a branch. One hand steadying myself against mitig's trunk, the other on my hip. I have the kind of wide-toothed smile only an abinoonjiinh can have, the kind that makes it clear the world has not gotten to me yet.
–
I am six when we move to the old house. We are renting, nimomma and I, from my white grandparents. They bought this house as a rental property; it was built in the 1970s, and thirty years later, it retains the same russet cupboards and peeling yellow linoleum.

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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