5 writers make the 2018 CBC Nonfiction Prize shortlist

Five writers from across Canada have made the shortlist forthe 2018 CBCNonfiction Prize.

The finalists are:

• If I wax poetic the pain feels worthwhile by Lily Chang
• How to Catch a Nightcrawler by Kat Main
• Acceleration by Anastasia McEwen
• Easy Family Dinners by Sandra Murdock
• True Trans by Lee Thomas

The winner will be announced on Sept. 18, 2018.Theywill receive $6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, a 10-day writing residency at theBanff Centre for Arts and Creativityand have their story published onCBC Books. Four finalistswill each receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand will have their story published onCBC Books.

This year's finalists were selected bythe jury, comprised ofScaachiKoul,GraemeWood andKyoMaclear. They will also select the winner.

Thelonglistwas selected bya team of readers made upof writers and editors across Canada.There were more than2,000 English-language submissions andmore than 4,000 submissions in English and French.

Here are the 2018 finalists.

If I wax poetic the pain feels worthwhileby Lily Chang

About Lily:Lily Chang is a writer and editor based in Montreal, on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien'keh:ka people. She is a graduate of Concordia University's MA program in creative writing. Her work has appeared in Headlight Anthology, Word and Colour, Voices Visible and Frog Hollow Press's The City Series.

Why she wrote If I wax poetic the pain feels worthwhile: "Reading Anne Enright; sitting alone in a sterile hotel room, having relocated to a strange, new country; trying not to itch my tattoo that had swelled up because of a weird sun allergy; thinking about the homes/selves I've left behind and conversations about (a)sexuality. Disgust, discomfort, shame. All this led to the story."

• Read an excerpt fromIf I wax poetic the pain feels worthwhilehere

How to Catch a Nightcrawler by Kat Main

About Kat:Kat Main has been a psychology teacher, writerand researcher. She has swam in the Aegean Sea, jumped out of an airplane at 13,500 feet and told fortunes on the streets of Vancouver, B.C. She now lives and works in Calgary, Alta., blending her time between writing and working in the non-profit sector. Main's writing was longlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize in 2015 and shortlisted for the Alberta Magazine Showcase Award in fiction. In 2013, she won the Brenda Strathern Writing prize.

Why she wrote How to Catch a Nightcrawler: "I'm currently working on a manuscript of creative nonfiction stories about growing up in a family with poverty, magic, fortune telling, ghosts, addictionand a real-life murder mystery. They say truth is stranger than fictionand in the case of my childhood, it's more than true. When other kids were going home to piano lessons, I was being given lessons in clairvoyance and astral travel. I think belief in magic and occultism allowed my family to escape from some of the harsher realities of life such as poverty when I was growing up."

• Read How to Catch a Nightcrawlerhere

Accelerationby AnastasiaMcEwen

About Anastasia:AnastasiaMcEwenlives inFergus, Ont., with her husband, four children and four pets. For the last 18 years she has taught art, English and creative writing at Our Lady of Lourdes High School in Guelph, Ont. Her poetry and short stories have been published in Canada and the United States, and her artwork can be found in the permanent collections of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, the Art Gallery of Londonand the University of Toronto.

Why she wroteAcceleration:"The story centres around my brother Andrew's death which occurred over 30 years ago. Originally, I focused a lot more on Clarke, (a friend who was with me when Andrew died, and who suffered a horrific death three years later) but the piece was becoming too cluttered and Clarke's story wasn'tgetting the attention it deserved. So I narrowed the focus, then, for some reason, felt the need to disguise the experience as a short story. It was easier to look at it from the outside, but the sincerity in the writing was lacking. When I finally claimed the story as my own, I was able to close my eyes and dig deep into that sad, quiet placeand that's when the story came together."

• ReadAccelerationhere

Easy Family Dinnersby Sandra Murdock

About Sandra:Born to a military family, Sandra Murdock grew up across Canada and in Germany. After graduate studies in Belfast, Northern Irelandand St. John's, N.L., Murdockleft academia to work with newcomers to Canada. She currently teaches English at an immigrant settlement agency.She's published poetry in Echolocation and The Antigonish Review, and is currently working on a creative nonfiction collection about her experiences with an alcoholic loved one. She lives with her son in Dartmouth, N.S., on the unceded traditional territory of the Mi'kmaw people.

Why she wrote Easy Family Dinners: "I've been trying to write about what it was like losing a loved one to addiction. I want to explore and understand the grief and confusion I felt witnessing someone I loved change under the influence of this disease that thrives on silence and manipulation. This story gave me a kind of snapshot of everything that seemed to be falling apart around me while I was trying so hard to keep it together, act normaland, of course, fix it. I was always trying to figure out what to say whilst frantically trying to understand what was happening. Every mundane moment was charged with hope and despair."

• Read Easy Family Dinnershere

True Transby Lee Thomas

About Lee:Lee Thomas is an international speaker, writerand advocate currently based in Calgary, Alta. They speak to groups of all ages and sizes about mental health and LGBTQ+ issues, with a particular focus on stigma reduction and youth mental health. Thomasis a Mental Health First Aid instructor, ASIST trainer, two-time TEDx speakerand founder of the #MyDefinition poster campaign. When they are not doing mental health or LGBTQ+ stuff, you can usually find them updating their dog's Instagram account (yes, really).

Why they wrote True Trans:"Ever since I was young, I've used writing as a coping mechanism, a way to understand experiences that I can't make sense of otherwise. This was a particularly difficult moment for me, so I did what I always do I wrote about it. A lot of trans people experience mistreatment by medical professionals, and my story is certainly just one small example of that. It really hurts to work so hard on validating yourself, only to have someone you trust stomp all over it especially when that person is in a position to decide whether or not you get the help you need."

• Read True Transhere

To see the finalists for the French competition,go toPrix du rcitRadio-Canada.

The 2017 CBC Nonfiction Prize winner was Becky Blake for her story Trust Exercise.

TheCBC Literary Prizes have been recognizing Canadian writers since 1979.Past winners include MichaelOndaatje, Carol Shields, Michael Winter and FrancesItani.

• Check out the past winners of the CBC Literary Prizes

If you're a writer,you can join our Canada Writes Facebook group, a place where Canadian writers can connect and support each other.