The Weight of the Crown by Deanna Patterson
CBC Books | Posted: September 12, 2024 1:59 PM | Last Updated: September 12
The Regina writer is on the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist
Deanna Patterson has made the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for The Weight of the Crown.
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 Deanna Patterson
Deanna Patterson is an educator, a performer and a hobbyist writer. She briefly worked as a journalist with CBC Saskatchewan.
Entry in five-ish words
"Confessions of a bootleg princess."
The story's source of inspiration
"This is a cathartic piece of writing. I work part-time as a children's entertainer for birthday parties and private events. I am well acquainted with Elsa, Queen of Arendale. Although this work has brought me great joy, it's also left some scars. Portraying Elsa is a gift, but my insecurities are amplified one thousand-fold when I put on the blonde wig. I wrote this piece to address my rocky relationship with the Queen of Arendale. It's also partly to poke fun at myself. Sometimes I really need to lighten up."
First lines
A mother approaches me confidently, a woman around my age, dragging her young daughter behind her. The ballroom is packed with other mother-daughter duos. The daughter and I are wearing matching outfits, and I make sure to compliment her for that. Her name is Oakleigh or something. She's probably four.
"Elsa, Oakleigh has something she'd like to ask you," mom says.
"Of course!" I answer warmly, crouching down to meet Oakleigh at her level.
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)