Meet the 2017 CBC Poetry Prize readers

Readers are the driving force behindCBC Literary Prizes. Every year, CBC Books enlists the help of established writers and editors from across Canada to read the thousands of entries submitted to our prizes. These readers compile the longlist, which is given to the jury. The jury then selects the shortlist and the eventual winner from the readers' longlisted selections.

Thejury for the 2017 CBCPoetry Prize is comprised of Rosanna Deerchild, Gary Barwin and Humble The Poet.

• 33 writers make the CBC Poetry Prize longlist

The winner of the 2017 CBC Poetry Prize will be announced on Nov. 22, 2017 and will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, attend a 10-day writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and have their story published on CBC Books and inAir Canada enRoute magazine.

Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and will have their story published on CBC Books.

The2016 CBC Poetry Prize winner was Michael Fraserfor his poemAfrican Canadian in Union Blue.

• Michael Fraser: How I wrote the poem that won the 2016 CBC Poetry Prize

If you are interested in entering the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2018 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January 2018.

• 10 famous Canadian writers you'd be surprised to learn won CBC Literary Prizes

Here are the 10 writers who served as readers for the 2017CBCPoetry Prize.

GuyleighJohnson

Guyleigh Johnson is a 24-year-old poet and spoken word artist, a youth coordinatorand an African Student Support Worker for the Halifax Regional School Board. Last year, she released her first poetry collection titled Expect the Unexpectedwhich focuses on inner city youth and the challenges they face on a daily basis. She is currently studying journalism atDalhousie University.

• Guyleigh Johnson reads her poem Black Males Left for Dead

Richard Kelly Kemick

Richard Kelly Kemickis a poet, journalistand fiction writer. Heregularly contributes to The Walrusand has produced a documentary for CBC'sThe Doc Project. His debut collection of poetryCaribou Runwas published March 2016. He won a National Magazine Award in 2016 for feature writing and another for fiction. He also received first placein the 2017 Norma Epstein FoundationAward for creative writing.

Gwen Benaway

Gwen Benawayis the author oftwo collections of poetry, Ceremonies for the Dead and Passage.In 2015, she was the recipient of the inaugural Speaker's Award for a Young Author and in 2016 she received the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writersfrom the Writer's Trust of Canada. Her third poetry collectionWhat I Want is Not What I Hope Foris forthcomingin 2018.

• How Gwen Benaway faces her transgender future in her new poetry collection

Raoul Fernandes

RoulFernandes is a Vancouver poet. He has been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies, includingtheBest Canadian Poetry 2015. That same year, his first book of poems,Transmitter and Receiver.It won theDorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and theDebut-litzer Prize in 2016 and was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the Canadian Authors Association Award for poetry.

Nyla Matuk

Nyla Matuk is the author of two books of poetry, Sumptuary Lawsin 2012 and Strangerin 2016.Sumptuary Lawswas nominated for the League of Canadian Poets' Gerald LampertMemorial Award. She has received grants from the Ontario Arts Council and the Whiting Foundation, and in 2015 was the Reynolds Atelier Visiting Artist at McGill University. Her poems have appeared in magazines and anthologiessuch as The New Yorker, The Walrus and CarcanetPress' NewPoetriesVI.

GarryGottfriedson

Garry Gottfriedson is awriter and rancher.He was awarded the Gerald Red Elk Creative Writing Scholarship by the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Coloradowhere he studied under Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Marianne Faithful and others.His published works include the 2002First People's Publishing Award nomineeGlass Tepee andWhiskey Bullets, a 2006 collection of cowboy and Indian heritage poems and a finalist for the Anskohk Aboriginal Literature Festival Award. He is also the author ofthe 2010 poetry collectionSkin Like Mine.He currently teaches at Chief Atahm School.

AdleBarclay

AdleBarclayis a poet, the interviews editor at The Rusty Toque, a poetry ambassador for Vancouver's poet laureate Rachel Roseand the 2017 critic-in-residence for Canadian Women In Literary Arts.Her debut poetry collectionIf I Were in a Cage I'd Reach Out for Youwas published in2016 andwon the 2017 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize.She is also the recipient of the 2016 Lit POP Award for poetry and the 2016 Walrus Readers' Choice Award for poetry. Her work was recently featured on an episode of CBC'sNorth by Northwest.

OwainNicholson

Owain Nicholson is a poet and archaeologist.His poems often use the digsite as a source of image and metaphor.Digsiteis Nicholson's debut collection of poetry.He is currently working on fiction project.

Faizal Deen

Faizal Deenis a poet, novelist and researcher. He is the author of Land Without Chocolate.His work appears in numerous journals, magazines and anthologies, including Thomas Glave's Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles.In 2016, he became a graduate fellow in Migration and Diaspora Studies at Carleton University. A year later,his poetrycollection about Caribbean identities,The Greatest Films, was published.

El Jones

El Jonesis a spoken word poet, journalist, community activist, educatorand radio host in Nova Scotia. She was the fifth poet laureate of Halifax from 2013 to 2015.Her book of spoken word poetryLive from the Afrikan Resistance! was published by Roseway Press in 2014.El was recently named the Nancy's Chair inWomen's Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University for the 2017-2019 term.

• El Jones: A poem on Neurodiversity