CBC BOOKS, CBC’s online home for literary content, together with its partners the Canada Council for the Arts and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, has announced the Longlist for the 2020 CBC Nonfiction Prize.
Laurie McCulloch of Turner Valley has been named to the Longlist for her story, Strata.
Laurie has a journalism degree from Carleton University, a graduate certificate from the Humber School for Writers, and is a member of the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society in Calgary. Her work appears, or is forthcoming, in Woman’s World, After the Pause…, and Lily Poetry Review.
A sample of Laurie McCulloch’s story:
muskeg (n. swamp or bog)
“Get out quick or you’ll get sucked in.”— Don O.
“If you want to spend time with me this summer you’re gonna have to learn to ride.”
This from a man I’d met two weeks earlier, the guy bent over my coffee table circling ads in the classifieds.
“Um,” I said.
Not: Who the hell do you think you are? Or: You know it’s only February, right? Responses I thought of later when his ultimatum waved like a red flag the size of a four-bedroom house with two-point-two kids living inside.
I couldn’t help myself, though. I peered over his shoulder at the ads for Kawasaki
Somethings and Yamaha Or-Others, and said the only thing that came to mind:
“Ride what?”
Which is how I found myself, three months later, helping Don unload a couple dirt bikes from the back of his truck.
We were parked in a field at the base of the Rockies, surrounded by acres of thick forest, wolf willow and barberry in full leaf, the Spring sun high and warm. On their kickstands the motorcycles rose out of the knee-high switchgrass: Don’s the lime-green Kawasaki, a giant praying mantis; mine the sedate blue rental beside it, an ironing board onwheels.
The finalists, announced Sept. 24, are:
- Joseph Kakwinokanasum of White Rock, B.C. for Ray Says
- Amy MacRae of Vancouver for Take a Photo Before I Leave You
- Jonathan Poh of Burnaby, B.C. for Value Village
- Rachael Preston of Nanaimo, B.C. for The Story Teller
- Leona Theis of Saskatoon for Sturnella Neglecta (Overlooked Little Starling)
The stories were selected from more than 1700 entries received from across Canada. The public can read the shortlisted stories on CBCBooks.ca. The winner of this year’s prize will be announced on Oct 1.
The jurors for this year’s CBC Nonfiction Prize are Yasuko Thanh, Bill Gaston and Robyn Doolittle.
In addition to a cash prize of $6000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Grand Prize winner will receive a two- week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and will be published on the CBC Books website. The four Runners-up will each receive $1000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and will be published on CBC Books.
For more information on the CBC Literary Prizes, please visit CBCBooks.ca.
Submitted by CBC Books
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