Five writers from across Canada made the 2022 New CBC Award restricted list.
The finalists are:
The winner will be announced on April 28, 2022. They will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and attend a two-week writing residency at the Banff Arts and Creativity Center.
The other four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts.
The five finalists have had their work published on CBC Books. You can read their stories by clicking on the links above.
This year’s finalists were selected by a jury consisting of Omar El Akkad, Casey Plett and David Bergen. They will also select the winner.
The long list was compiled by a team of writers and editors from across Canada. There were over 2,300 submissions in English.
The shortlist of the French competition has also been unveiled. To find out more, go to the Prix de la Nouvelle Radio-Canada 2022.
Last year’s winner was British Columbia writer and teacher Corinna Chong for her story, Kindergarten children.
If you are interested in other Radio-Canada Literary Awardsthe 2022 CBC Poetry Prize is open for submissions until May 31, 2022.
The 2023 New CBC Award will open in September and the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January 2023.
Discover the 2022 New CBC Award English finalists below.
Susanna Cupido is a student from New Brunswick. She attends the University of Halifax where she is currently completing an undergraduate degree in English and Psychology. his poem The door won the Accenti Poetry Competition in 2021.
why she wrote Me vs. Jim Bailey: “I was inspired by research I’ve done in psychology and some of my own personal experiences with mental health and therapy. In writing this story, I was particularly interested in exploring the different ways in which people struggling with mental health issues could relate to one another.”
I was particularly interested in exploring the different ways people struggling with mental health issues might relate to each other.
Jeremy Elder is a Toronto-based copywriter and aspiring part-time poet. His personal creative writing explores his own story and aims to add to the legacy of queer literature, art, storytelling and community that has always inspired him deeply. path of desire is his first personal work of fiction.
why he wrote path of desire: “I have been deeply moved by the art of Félix González-Torres for years and how his partnership with Ross Laycock has inspired their lives. I have thought a lot about what Felix and his cohort of queer artists , who have been denied a longer life by the HIV/AIDS crisis, may want us to know and remember them a generation later. Their loss continues to affect us, and we need to work harder hard to go back in time and find the messages in their work to fully receive them today.
I tried to develop the power of the queer imagination and the ways we move through the world differently.
“I wanted to combine memoir and fiction to open up their worlds through my own experience of seeing Felix’s art in person for the first time. I started writing by researching Ross, who is mentioned throughout but who doesn’t never really gave his own voice.
“I’ve tried to tap into the power of the queer imagination and the ways we navigate the world differently. To reflect on our unique experiences of companionship, mentorship, intimacy and sex, then take it a step further: communicate backwards and forwards through the decades, with our real and imagined selves. It is an ode to the power of the art of communicating despite death, a note of thanks to Felix and Ross for how they have enriched my life, and a love letter to my gay self and the potential of my own imagination.”
Nancy Hui Sulaiman is a Chinese-Canadian writer from LaSalle, Ontario. She holds an Honors BA from the University of Windsor in English Literature and Communication Studies and an MA in Journalism from Western University. She is currently working on writing short stories and a novel. In 2020, its history, What fits in the palm of your handwas chosen as a finalist in the Sarah Selecky Writing School’s Little Birds competition.
why she wrote Dinner with friends: “The main trigger for this story was the use of terms such as “the Asian flu” or “the Chinese virus” at the start of the pandemic. My inspiration came from finding a way to understand my response to these xenophobic names being used for COVID-19. Looking back, I think my writing for this story was a way for me to unravel and unravel what it’s like to be a Chinese-Canadian woman in today’s society.
Looking back, I think my writing for this story was a way for me to unravel and unravel what it’s like to be a Chinese-Canadian woman in today’s society.
“How is it to be Chinese in a predominantly white community? What makes a person Chinese? Or Canadian? And how are we disruptive and/or complicit in maintaining racial stereotypes? and the thoughts surrounding these issues.”
Anna Ling Kaye is a Vancouver-based writer and editor. Her fiction won the 2021 RBC Bronwen Wallace Prize for Emerging Writers and was shortlisted for the RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Prize and the Journey Prize.
why she wrote nesting season: “This story brings together themes, events and images that I have collected for years as someone who lived in Hong Kong – before and after the handover, and more recently in Vancouver. Roddy Doyle’s life without children was one of the first pieces of fiction set during the pandemic and I wanted to address it from an East Asian perspective. When I realized how much the 7 p.m. cheer could resonate for someone with Jeremy’s background and what his worldview might have been at the start of lockdown, the whole story gelled very quickly. “
This story brings together themes, events and images that I have collected for years as someone who lived in Hong Kong – before and after the handover, and more recently in Vancouver.
Chanel M. Sutherland won the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Award for her story Umbrella and is a recipient of the 2022 Mairuth Sarsfield Mentorship, part of the Fresh Pages initiative of the Quebec Writers Federation. Born in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Chanel moved to Montreal when she was 10 years old. She holds a BA in English Literature from Concordia University and is currently writing her first book, a collection of short stories that explore the experience of black immigrants in the Caribbean.
why she wrote Under the softness of the snow: “It’s a story of immigrant mothers, of which my mother was one. I was raised in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines by my grandparents and I didn’t know my mother until the age of Age 10. As a child, I didn’t understand the full weight of my mother’s sacrifice – leaving my sister and I behind to shape a better life for all of us across the ocean.
I wanted to write a story that captures the first moments of a young mother in a foreign country, hostile in many ways.
“I wanted to write a story that captured the first moments of a young mother in a foreign land, a story that was hostile to her in many ways. The sisters in the story are an amalgamation of many Caribbean mothers I have met over the years. Among other things, the point of view of “you” speaks to these mothers – saying, “I see you”. In a way, it is a love letter to any mother who had this experience.