5 writers make the 2022 CBC Nonfiction Prize shortlist

Five writers from across Canada have made the 2022CBC Nonfiction Prize shortlist.

The finalists are:

• Your Houseby Cayenne Bradley (Victoria)
• Advice to a New Beekeeper by Susan Cormier (Langley, B.C.)
• Seh Woo, My Teeth by Kerissa Dickie(Fort Nelson, B.C.)
• Tek Tek by Y. S. Lee(Kingston, Ont.)
• Storkatorium by Jane Ozkowski(Bloomfield, Ont.)

The winner will be announced on Sept. 22. They will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and attend a two-week writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

The remaining four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts.

All five finalists had their work published on CBC Books. You can read their stories by clicking on the links above.

• Calling all writers! The 2023 CBC Short Story Prize is now open

This year's finalists were selected by a jury comprised of Marcello Di Cintio, Sharon Butala and Jenna Butler. They will also select the winner.

The longlist was compiled by a team of writers and editors from across Canada. There were more than1,700 English-language submissions.

The shortlist for the French-language competition has also been revealed. To read more, go to thePrix du rcit Radio-Canada.

Last year'swinner wasMontrealwriter Chanel M. Sutherlandfor herstoryUmbrella.

• How Chanel M. Sutherland wrote the story that won the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize

If you're interested in other CBC Literary Prizes, the 2023CBC Short Story Prize is open for submissions until Oct. 31, 2022.

The 2023CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January and the 2023CBC Poetry Prize will open in April.

Get to know the 2022CBC Nonfiction Prize English-language finalists below.

Your House by Cayenne Bradley

Cayenne Bradley won first place in Event's 2021 Non-Fiction Contest and Room's 2020 Short Forms contest. Their work can be found in publications such as Contemporary Verse 2, Plenitude andthe Temz Review. They have a BFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and live in Victoria with their fianc and infant daughter. Bradley is currently finishing a memoir they hope to publish soon.

Why theywrote Your House: "I cope with difficult memories by turning them into art. There's something so transformative about finding poetry in my pain; it's a way to reclaim and give a new purpose to experiences I had no control over.

I cope with difficult memories by turning them into art.

"To write through trauma is to write through the body and release somatic ghosts. I know I've found the right words when the story feels like a safe house and resting place for a dark memory."

• Read Your House

Advice to a New Beekeeper by Susan Cormier

Mtis writer Susan Cormier works in print, performance and film. She has wonthe Federation of B.C. Writers' LiteraryAward, the Hemingway Short Story Prize and the B.C. Alternative Writing and Design Competition, andhas been shortlisted forArc Magazine's Poem of the Year and SubTerrain's Lush Triumphant Award. Her writing has appeared in publications such as Atlantis Women's Studies Journal, B&A New Fiction, West Coast Line and the anthologiesRocksalt: An Anthology of Contemporary B.C. PoetsandAgainst Death: 35 Essays on Living. By day, she is a beekeeper and co-owner of C.R. Apiary in Langley, B.C.; by night, she is the producer of Vancouver Story Slam.

Why she wrote Advice to a New Beekeeper:"Bees are viewed as a beautiful enigma, a quasi-mythical species that is governed by a natural magic. By extension of this, beekeeping is assumed to be a simple pastime, rather than an intense combination of physical labour and scientific learning. As a result, many novice keepers struggle under the steep learning curveand need to rely heavily on educational tools such as mentors, books, clubsand instructional classes.

The pain and poetry cannot be taught, can only be experienced first-hand.

"There is indescribably great beauty and magic in beekeeping, yes, but it does not exist in the simple observation of bees, the passive ownership of a colony of bees, or the quoting of trite facts about bees. It exists in the interactions between the bees and a knowledgeable, insightful keeper, in the epiphanies one has while working with the bees. The pain and poetry cannot be taught, can only be experienced first-hand. This essay is an attempt, within the limitations of our awkward human language, to convey some of the things that a beekeeper learns that cannot be gleaned from books, videos and discussion."

• Read Advice to a New Beekeeper

Seh Woo, My Teeth by Kerissa Dickie

Kerissa Dickie is Dene from Fort Nelson First Nation, a community across the river valley from the town of Fort Nelson, B.C. Her passion for writing was stoked while helping create a book of stories by residential school survivors in her community.Afterwards, she immediately enrolled at the University of Victoria to continue to hone her craft. She won a national writing award just before graduating with her BFA that brought her to Ottawa. She saw her writing published in the anthologiesInitiations: A Selection of Young Native WritingsandImpact: Colonialism in Canadaand in magazines and newspapers such as Beaver and Windspeaker. Dickie is currently working on her memoir, andSeh Woo, My Teethis an excerpt.

I needed to create a place where my grandmother was still sitting beside me.

Why she wrote Seh Woo, My Teeth:"As melodramatic as it sounds, I felt like I needed to create a place where my grandmother was still sitting beside me."

• Read Seh Woo, My Teeth

Tek Tek by Y. S. Lee

Y. S. Lee's fiction includes the YA mystery seriesThe Agency, which was translated into six languages. Her poems appear in publications such as Event, Room, Rattle and the Literary Review of Canada. Her poemSaturday morning, East Pender Streetwaslonglisted for the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize. She lives in Katarokwi (Kingston, Ont.).

I miss my grandmother deeply, but I'm not sure how well I knew her.

Why shewrote Tek Tek: "I miss my grandmother deeply, but I'm not sure how well I knew her. I wonder how a fluent common language would have deepened our relationship."

• Read Tek Tek

Storkatorium by Jane Ozkowski

Jane Ozkowski splits her time between writing and renovating vintage campers. Her writing has appeared in the National Post, Vice, on the Walrus Blog and in a variety of other print and online publications. She is also the author of the YA novelWatching Traffic.Storkatoriumis the start of a book-length project she's working on focusing on the challenges of conceiving a child as a queer couple.

Why she wrote Storkatorium: "My wife and I have been working with a fertility clinic for over a year now and every step has been a challenge. From trying to navigate a bureaucratic system clearly not set up for queer people, to endless miscommunications, to interactions where I've felt treated as far less than human, what I thought would be a special and beautiful experience has turned into something frustrating and disheartening.

I wanted to vent some of my early frustrations with the fertility process while holding on to what my wife and I are working toward.

"In writingStorkatorium, I wanted to vent some of my early frustrations with the fertility process while holding on to what my wife and I are working toward. I wanted to take some of the heartache we've felt so far and turn it into something beautiful to remind us that there will be an end, and it will all be worth it."

• Read Storkatorium