Palimpsest County by Rachel Robb

Rachel Robb has won the 2024 CBC Poetry Prizefor Palimpsest County.

She willreceive $6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, attend a two-week writing residency atBanff Centre for Arts and Creativityand her poem has been published onCBC Books.

This year's jury is composed ofShani Mootoo, Garry Gottfriedson and Emily Austin.The jury selects the shortlist and thewinner from thelonglist,which is chosen by a reading committee ofwriters and editors from across the country. Submissionsare judged anonymously on the basis of the participant's use of language, originality of subject and writing style.

• Shani Mootoo, Garry Gottfriedson and Emily Austin to judge 2024 CBC Poetry Prize

For more on how thejudging for the CBC Literary Prizes works,visit the FAQ page.

If you're interested in theCBC Literary Prizes, the 2025CBC Nonfiction Prizeopens in January and the 2025CBC Poetry Prizewill open in April.

About Rachel Robb

Rachel Robb is a Tkaronto (Toronto)-based writer and educator of Jamaican Irish Canadian heritage. Her poetry has been featured as a finalist in the Bridport Prize anthology and shortlisted for The Fiddlehead's Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize, The Alpine Fellowship, the VC International Poetry Prize (longlist), and most recently, the Montreal International Poetry Prize.

Her work has also appeared in anthologies for Hamilton's gritLit Festival and The Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story, where she placed first and second, respectively. A graduate of the Humber School for Writers, she is currently working on her first collection of poetry.

RobbtoldCBC Booksabout the inspiration behind Palimpsest County: "I was inspired by the contradictory layers of small-town Ontario history. The image of a palimpsest resonated with me as a metaphor for resistance; despite constant attempts at erasure through time, open hostilityand commercialization of land, the presence of Indigenous people endures.

I wanted to explore the internal breaking open that must occur within a settler on this land before reconciliation can begin.- Rachel Robb

"Mostly, I wanted to explore the internal breaking open that must occur within a settler on this land before reconciliation can begin. This rupture takes different forms for different people; for some, it never happens.

For the narrator of this poem an outsider, an immigrant she attempts to situate herself on this shifting landscape. Ultimately, it is the beauty and vulnerability of the natural world that begins to shape her role in reconciliation."

You can read Palimpsest County below.

Read the other finalists

• There is no neutral way to say I was fourteenby Cicely Grace (Vancouver)
• (Eat the Bitterness)by Emily Yiling Ma (Burnaby, B.C.)
• Northern Childhoodby EleonoreSchnmaier(Ketch Harbour, N.S.)
• The Killer and the Harpistby Catherine St. Denis (Victoria)

About the 2024CBC Poetry Prize

The winner of the 2024CBC Poetry Prizewill receive $6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, have their work published onCBC Booksand win a two-week writing residency atBanff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand have their work published onCBC Books.

If you're interested in theCBC Literary Prizes, the 2025CBC Nonfiction Prizeopens in January and the 2025CBC Poetry Prizeopens in April.The 2026CBC Short Story Prizewill open in September.