A Love Letter to the Super Tenant by Marianne Mandrusiak
CBC Books | Posted: September 12, 2024 1:59 PM | Last Updated: September 24
The Montreal writer is on the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist
Marianne Mandrusiak has made the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for A Love Letter to the Super Tenant.
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 Marianne Mandrusiak
Marianne Mandrusiak is a stand-up comedian and writer living in Montreal. Marianne graduated with an MFA in creative nonfiction from Dalhousie and the University of King's College in Halifax (2024) and is currently completing a memoir-in-essays entitled I Don't Think I'm Doing This Right. She recently published a children's book entitled A Habitat for the Little Bat, which aims to teach kids about habitat protection and the power of collective action. Mandrusiak is a mainstay on Montreal's comedy circuit and made her Just for Laughs festival debut in 2023. You can often find her doing stand-up at the Comedy Nest or wherever you get your laughter-fix in Montreal.
Mandrusiak's story Bad Kisser was on the longlist for the CBC Nonfiction Prize in 2020.
LISTEN | Marianne Mandrusiak on Radio Noon Quebec:
Entry in five-ish words
"Overdue appreciation of an unlikely friendship."
The story's source of inspiration
"Living in Toronto in my twenties, I developed a turbulent but loving friendship with Hazel, my eccentric, elderly neighbour. One of time's greatest gifts is offering perspective, and a decade later, I am able to cherish how truly valuable Hazel's presence was in that chapter of my life. Curious as to what became of this beguiling woman, I started to look for her, first by contacting my old landlord, then by calling the nearest hospitals and the surrounding care homes, and finally, by searching through the obituaries. When I didn't find anything, I became tormented by the notion that someone could disappear without so much as a few words online or in the newspaper to document their existence. Hazel had no spouse or children. I believe she had emigrated from the Netherlands and to my knowledge, had no living relatives in Canada. I have experienced considerable guilt about not doing more for her when we were neighbours, and about being oblivious to the probable warning signs of dementia. I started to jot down my memories of Hazel, and as I did, my appreciation for her grew. Eventually, it became a love letter of sorts."
First lines
I use my right knee to hoist the old, over-stuffed, evergreen suitcase up the apartment building's cement steps on Bathurst Street. I begin to endeavour the same stunt with my second case when chiffon drapes in the bay window flutter, catching my attention. The hairs on my neck stand up, and I tense like a squirrel who knows it's being watched. The front door swings open, revealing a bearded man with whisky breath who looks irritated to be disturbed this early in the day. My new roommate. Joey.
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)