Meet the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize readers

The longlists for the CBC Literary Prizes are chosen by a team of writers and editors across Canada. Meet the 12 who will be working on the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize, which is open for submissions until March 1.

These writers will be determining the longlist for the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize

CBC Books Posted: Feb 08, 2024 1:08 PM EST | Last Updated: February 8

A collage of 12 faces — These are the writers and editors from across Canada that will determine the longlist for the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize. (See below for individual photo credits)

Every year,CBC Booksenlists the help of established writers and editors from across Canada to read the thousands of entries submitted to our prizes.

Our readers compile the longlist, which is given to the jury. The jury, comprised of Michelle Good, Dan Werb and Christina Sharpe,will then select the shortlist and the eventual winner from the longlisted selections. You can meet the readers for the 2024CBC Nonfiction Prizebelow.

The 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prizeis currently accepting submissions until March 1, 2024.

The winner will receive $6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, have the opportunity to attend a two-week writing residency atThe Banff Centreand have their work published onCBC Books.

Calling all writers! The 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize is now open

Here are the 12 writerswho will be reading the submissions to the 2024CBC Nonfiction Prize.

Max Arambulo

A smiling bald man in front of a purple brick wall and wearing a grey blazer and jeans shirt — Max Arambulo is a psychotherapist and bookseller. (Mike Matisko)

Max Arambulo has had a long career in books. He worked in publishing for many years until he left to become a psychotherapist with a specialty in spiritual care.

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These days he combines his psychotherapy practice with his work as a bookseller and manager at independent bookstoreType Books in Toronto.

S. Bear Bergman

Composite image of a smiling bearded man and the book cover with the title written in white letters over a purple and teal background. — S. Bear Bergman is the author of Special Topics in Being a Parent. (Arsenal Pulp Press)

S. Bear Bergman is an author, educator and public speaker. He has documented his experience as a trans parent and writes the advice column "Asking Bear." He is also the founder and publisher of the book press Flamingo Rampant.

Transgender activist publishes kids books with positive stories of LGBTQ families

Special Topics in Being a Parent is the follow-up toSpecial Topics in Being Human. It is a queer guide to things the author has learned the hard way about parenting. The book offers parenting advice andwisdom, all filtered through a queer lens, to help readers navigate some of the complexities of raising children.

Esmeralda Cabral

How to Clean a Fish is a book by Esmeralda Cabral. (The University of Alberta Press, Rebecca Blissett)

Esmeralda Cabral is a creative nonfiction writer. She was born in the Azores, grew up in Alberta, and now lives in Vancouver.

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InHow to Clean a Fish, Cabral recounts an extended stay in Portugal, the country of her birth, with her family. Cabral, her Canadian-born husband, children and Portuguese water dog, Maggie, explore cobblestone alleys, try local cuisine and connect with the culture, seeking to make their own version of home.

Tara Sidhoo Fraser

A woman with dark, long hair smiles at the camera and an abstract book cover featuring a person and jungle leaves and pink birds. — Tara Sidhoo Fraser is the author of the memoir When My Ghost Sings. (Kristine Cofsky-The Portrait Sessions, Arsenal Pulp Press)

Tara Sidhoo Fraser is a writer from Vancouver. Her work has been published in Autostraddle and Anathema magazine. Before publishing, she received a bachelor's degree in social sciences from the University of Victoria. Her memoirWhen My Ghost Singsis her first book.

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InWhen My Ghost Sings: A Memoir of Stroke, Recovery, and Transformation,Fraser details how a stroke left her with amnesia and how, when her memories started coming back, she didn't always recognize the person who she used to be. She names that other version of her, Ghost, and in letting Ghost take up more space in her life, she eventually has to reclaim her sense of self.

Holly Hogan

A book cover of a wavy ocean and sea creatures and a woman with brown hair under a knitted beanie and wearing a winter coat who is smiling at the camera. — Message in a Bottle is a book by Holly Hogan. (Knopf Canada, Dennis Minty)

Holly Hogan is an author and wildlife biologist who lives in St. John's.Her work has taken her from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and every latitude in between.

Bird biologist Holly Hogan on life at sea vs. on land

Message in a Bottleis a story about the central threat to marine life diversity: ocean plastic. In this book, biologist and writer Holly Hogan brings marine creatures to life as she recounts experiences on her 30 years of ocean travel.Message in a Bottlewas shortlisted for the 2023 Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction.

Stephanie Kain

A black and white photo of a woman sitting on a chair holding a white mug and the book cover with the title written in cursive on a black background — Lifeline is a memoir by Stephanie Kain. (Justine McNeely, ECW Press)

Stephanie Kainis a writer who splits her time between Ottawa and P.E.I. Her work has been shortlisted twice for the Lambda Literary Award and she teaches creative writing at the University of Ottawa.

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In the memoirLifeline: An Elegy,Kain recounts her experience of taking care of a loved one who is diagnosed with suicidal depression. Through using a mix of literary genre forms such as personal essays, poetry and stream-of-consciousness, she recounts all that is a part of this complex relationship the emotions of love and pain.

Alex Manley

On the left is a photo of the author who has short light pink and blonde hair. They are wearing a black-shirt and they are looking straight at the camera. On the right is a black-coloured book cover that has multi-coloured text overlay (orange, blue, pink) that is the book title and name of the author and subtitle in white. — Alex Manley is the author of The New Masculinity. (Blair Elliott, ECW Press)

Manley is a Montreal-based writer, editor and translator. Their work has been published by AskMen, Hazlitt, The Walrus, Vulture, Catapult, Electric Literature, Maisonneuve, ThisMagazine and the Literary Review of Canada. TheirbookThe New Masculinitywas a finalist for the 2023 Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction from the Quebec Writers' Federation.

Montreal author examines what masculinity means in the 21st century

The New Masculinity: A Roadmap for a 21st-Century Definition of Manhoodis a guide for escaping toxic masculinity and unlearning what it means to be a man. Manley reflects on the state of men's mental health and offers up ways to unlearn gender roles that put masculinity before one's humanity.

Monia Mazigh

On the left is a pale orange book cover with a graphic of a woman with long hair looking to the right, and a graphic of a woman wearing a hijab looking to the left. There is brown and pale orange text overlay that is the book's title and author's name. On the right is a woman who is wearing a flowered sweater and a burgundy hijab and looking straight at the camera. — Monia Mazigh is the author of Gendered Islamophobia. (Mawenzi House Publishers Ltd.)

Monia Mazigh was born and raised in Tunisia and immigrated to Canada in 1991. Her bookHope and Despairtells the story of her husband's deportation to Syria where he was tortured and held without charge for over a year. She is also the author of the novelsMirrors and MiragesandHope Has Two Daughters.Mazigh is an adjunct and research professor at the Department of English and Literature at Carleton University. She writes in both French and English.

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Gendered Islamophobiaexplores Mazigh's multiple identities as a hijab-wearing Muslim woman who has spent most of her life as an immigrant residing in Quebec. Mazigh reflects on Islamophobia as applied to women and the stereotypes that Muslim women face.Gendered Islamophobiawas a finalist for the 2023 Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction.

Brandi Morin

Book cover with an illustration of an Indigenous woman beating a drum. — Our Voice of Fire is a memoir by Brandi Morin. (House of Anansi Press)

Brandi Morin is a Cree/Iroquois/French journalist from Treaty 6 territory in Alberta, covering Indigenous oppression in North America. In 2022, she won two National Native American Journalism awards for her work in Al Jazeera English. She has reported for CBC, the New York Times, Vice, National Geographic and more.

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Our Voice of Firerecounts Morin's experience as a foster kid, runaway and survivor of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls crisis. Her memoir chronicles her journey to overcome adversity and is a pursuit for justice.

Matthew R. Morris

Matthew R. Morris is a writer, advocate and educator currently based in Toronto. As a public speaker, he has travelled across North America to educate on anti-racism in the education system.Black Boys Like Me: Confrontations with Race, Identity and Belongingis his first book.

Matthew R. Morris writes about growing up Black and navigating race and identity in bookBlack Boys Like Me

Morris was influenced by the prominent Black male figures he saw in sports, TV shows and music while growing up in Scarborough, Ont. Morris is the son of a white mother and immigrant Black father, and grew up striving for academic success whilst confronting Black stereotypes and exploring hip hop culture in the 1990s. In his collection of eight personal essays,Black Boys Like Me, he examines his own experiences with race and identity throughout childhood into his current work as an educator in Toronto.

Gonzalo Riedel

A composite image of the author's black and white portrait of him wearing a baseball cap and the book cover with the title written in white over a blue background and a flower wilting over it — Gonzalo Riedel is the author of the memoir Never Better: Two Kids, Their Dad, and His Wife's Ghost. (Duncan McNairnay Photography, Dundurn Press)

Gonzalo Riedel is a Winnipeg-based writer and editor. Never Better: Two Kids, Their Dad, and His Wife's Ghost is his debut book.

The memoir Never Better chronicles Riedel's life from meeting the woman who would become hiswife, to her getting sick and then as a widower with two young children. It tackles difficult subjects like how to keep his wife's memory alive for his two boys when their mother passed before their second son even turned one.

J. Jill Robinson

A woman with long grey hair smiling at the camera. — J. Jill Robinson is a writer based in Galiano Island, B.C. (Submitted by J. Jill Robinson)

J. Jill Robinson writes both fiction and creative nonfiction. She spent decades in Calgary, Saskatoon and Banff before moving full time to Galiano Island, B.C. She won the Event magazine creative nonfictioncontest twice and her work has also won two Western Magazine awards andtwo Saskatchewan Book awards. She was previously a reader for the 2016 CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize.

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Robinson is the author of nonfiction booksOne Night At The Oceanview and That Story Is Your Mother's, and the short story collections Saltwater Trees, Lovely In Her Bones,Eggplant Wife andResidual Desire.She is also the author of the novelMore In Anger.