Jordan Abel, Kai Cheng Thom and Ruth B. to judge 2018 CBC Poetry Prize

Jordan Abel, Kai Cheng Thom and Ruth B. are the judges for the 2018 CBC Poetry Prize.

TheCBCPoetryPrizerecognizes unpublishedCanadian poetry. The winning author will receive$6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, attend a 10-day writing residency at theBanff Centre for Arts and Creativityand have their work published onCBC Books.Four finalists will win $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand have their work published onCBC Books.

Jordan Abel is a Nisga'a writer from British Columbia. Heis the author of Un/inhabited and The Place of Scraps, which won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. In 2017, his collection Injun won the Griffin Poetry Prize. Abel'screative work has recently been anthologized in Best Canadian Poetry, The Land We Are: Artists and Writers Unsettle the Politics of Reconciliationand The New Concrete: Visual Poetry in the 21st Century.He is currently pursuing a PhD at Simon Fraser University where his research concentrates on intergenerational trauma and Indigenous literature.

• Writing advice from Griffin Poetry Prize winner Jordan Abel: "Know people. Do stuff."

Kai Cheng Thom is a writer, performance artist and therapist. She is the author of thechildren's bookFrom the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea,a semi-autobiographical poetry collection calleda place called No Homelandand the novel Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir, for which she was nominated for a Lamba Literary Award. Thom wonthe Writers' Trust of Canada's 2017 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQemerging writers.

• How writing poetry helped Kai Cheng Thom find a place to belong

Ruth B. is a singer-songwriter from Edmonton. Her debut album, Safe Haven, was released to critical acclaim with Rolling Stone declaring Ruth B. "one to watch." In 2017, she received a JUNO Award for breakthrough artist of the year and a BMI Pop Award for her viral hit Lost Boy.

• Ruth B onfame, social media and 'writing songs that matter'

The 2018 CBCPoetry Prize is open until May 31, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Last year's winner was Alessandra Naccarato for Postcards for my Sister. You can read the entire 2017 shortlist here.