13 poetry collections by past CBC Literary Prizes winners and finalists from 2024

Celebrate poetry with these books by past CBC Literary Prizes winners and finalists that are being published in 2024.

The2024CBC PoetryPrizeis currently accepting submissions. The winner will receive$6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts,a two-week writing residency atBanff Centre for Arts and Creativityandtheir work will be published onCBC Books.

• The 2024 CBC Poetry Prize is open between April 1 and June 1

Four finalists each receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand their work is also published onCBC Books.

The Seventh Town of Ghostsby Faith Arkorful

The Seventh Town of Ghostsexplores these titular towns through songs that help readers grapple with the challenges of existence and independence. The book offers insight into the power of connection, tenderness and the human spirit.

• ReadFamily Affairby Faith Arkorful

Faith Arkorful has had her work published in Guts, Peach Mag, Prism International, Hobart, Without/pretend, The Puritan and Canthius. She was a semi-finalist in the 2019 92Y Discovery Contest. Arkorful was born in Toronto, where she still resides.

In 2020, Arkorful wasshortlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize.

Midwayby Kayla Czaga

Midwayis a poetry collection that explores the writer's grief in the aftermath of her parents' deaths. The poems travel from the underworld to London's Tate Modern in a way that's both comforting and disconcerting.

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Kayla Czaga is also the author ofFor Your Safety Please Hold OnandDunk Tank. For Your Safety Please Hold Onwon the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award andwas nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award for poetryand the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. She lives in Victoria and served as the online poetry mentor for Simon Fraser University's Writer's Studio.

Czaga wason the 2018 CBC Poetry Prize longlist.

Naked Pictures by Paulette Dub

Naked Pictures is a hybrid poetry collection and field-photo journalismrelatingthe relationship of Jasperite poet Paulette Dub with the Albertan lands, including everything that happened surrounding the XL Keystone pipeline.

Dub's poetry and prose has been nominated forthe Milton Acorn Memorial People's Poetry Award, the CBC Alberta Anthology, the Alberta Writers' Guild Best Novel Award, the Starburst Award, the Exporting Alberta Award and the Fred Kerner Award. She was recently named the writer in residence at the Jasper Municipal Library.

Dub won second place for the 2005CBC Poetry Prize.

Hazard, Homeby Christine Lowther

Hazard, Homeis a collection of nature poetry with a decolonial lens.The work examines the world with wonder at the animals and plants and grief due to urbanization, climate change and loss of biodiversity.

• ReadEnvironmental Servicesby Christine Lowther

Christine Lowtheris a writer from Tofino, B.C.She is also the author of four poetry collections. She served as Tofino'spoet laureate from 2020-2022.

Lowtherwas shortlisted for the2023 CBC NonfictionPrize.

Limited Verseby David Martin

Limited Verseis a collection of classic poems with a new twist they're translated into New English, made up of only 850 words.

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David Martin is an author of poetry collectionsKink BandsandTar Swan, which was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award and the W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize.

Martinwon the CBC Poetry Prize in 2014.

Crying Dressby Cassidy McFadzean

Crying Dressis a poetry collection rooted in the tradition of lyric poetry while adopting its own spin and linguistic play that challenges an idea of poetic coherence. It spans various locations and brings together scenes from intimate moments in domestic life to ones featuring the ghosts of Brooklyn.

Cassidy McFadzean is writerwho was raised in Regina and currently lives in Toronto.Her poetry books areDrolleriesandHacker Packer, which won two Saskatchewan Book Awards. She also wrote a crown of sonnets calledThird State of Being.She was raised in Regina and currently lives in Toronto.

McFadzean was a finalist for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2013.

A Year of Last Thingsby Michael Ondaatje

A Year of Last Thingsis Michael Ondaatje's long-awaited return to poetry. Drawing on his personal experiences, this collection goes back in time to all the borders that he's crossed with imagery at once witty, moving and wise.

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Ondaatje is a Canadian literary icon. His novels and poetry have earned international acclaim, and he was the first Canadian ever to win the Man Booker Prize in 1992, for the wartime storyThe English Patient. Born in Sri Lanka and educated in England, Ondaatje moved to Canada when he was 18 to attend university.

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Ondaatje began his writing career in 1967 as a poet, winning two Governor General's Awards for poetry before turning to fiction. Over his career, he's won the Giller Prize, the Governor General's Literary Award and France's prestigious Prix Medicis.

In 1982, Michael Ondaatje won theCBC Short Story Prize.

Empires of the Everydayby Anna Lee-Popham

Anna Lee-Popham's debut poetry collectionEmpires of the Everydayexplores the themes of modern city living, violence and dealing with artificial intelligence.

Lee-Popham is a poet, writerand editor fromToronto. She is a graduate of the MFA in creative writing at the University of Guelph, the Writer's Studio at Simon Fraser University and University of Toronto's School of Continuing Education creative writing certificate.

Lee-Popham was on thelonglist for the 2022 CBC Nonfiction Prize.

The Work by Bren Simmers

The poems in The Work explore the themes of loss and grief and how one can make themselves whole again after being broken. From the sudden death of her father, her mother's dementia and her sister-in-law's terminal illness, Simmers' poems show ushow healing can come from love.

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Bren Simmers is the author of four books, including the wilderness memoirPivot PointandHastings-Sunrise,which was a finalist for the Vancouver Book Award as well as a collection of poetry titledIf, When.

Simmerswon the 2022 CBC Poetry Prizefor her poetry collectionSpell World Backwards,which is included in The Work. Shewas previously longlisted for the CBCPoetry Prize in 2013and in2012 forScience Lessons.

A Blueprint for Survivalby Kim Trainor

A Blueprint for Survivalis a poetry collection that starts in wildfire season and then explores the forms of resistance and survival in the context of climate change. It examines each of these forms as a blueprint for being in and seeing the world.

Kim Trainor is the author of the poetry collectionsA thin fire runs through me, KaryotypeandLedi. Her poems have won the Fiddlehead's Ralph Gustafson Prize, the Malahat Review Long Poem Prize and the Great Blue Heron Prize. She lives in Vancouver.

Trainor was on the2019 CBC Poetry Prize longlist.

Precedented Parrotingby Barbara Tran

The poems inPrecedented Parrotingexplore themes of loss, the natural world, Asian stereotypesand our feathered friends. It's also a book about survival through generations and how bothloss and feathers canenable and necessitate flight.

Barbara Tran is a poet whose work has appeared in Women's Review of Books, Ploughshares and The New Yorker. Honours include a MacDowell Colony Gerald Freund Fellowship, Pushcart Prize and Lannan Foundation Writing Residency.She was born in New York city and currently lives in Toronto.

Tran was longlisted for the2018 CBC Nonfiction Prize.

Scientific Marvelby Chimwemwe Undi

Scientific Marvelis a poetry collection that looks into the history of and current life in Winnipeg. With humour and surprise, it delves into deeper themes of racism, queerness and colonialism while keeping personal lived experiences close to the page.

• The Poetry of Why: poet Chimwemwe Undi on a lifetime of questions in verse

Chimwemwe Undi is a Winnipeg-based poet, editor and lawyer. She is the Winnipeg poet laureate for 2023 and 2024. She won the 2022 John Hirsch Emerging Writer Award from the Manitoba Book Awards and her work can be found in Brick, Border Crossings, Canadian Literature and BBC World.

Undi waslonglisted for the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize.

The Lantern and the Night Mothsby Yilin Wang

The Lantern and the Night Mothsis a translation of poems by five contemporary and modern Chinese poets, Qiu Jin, Fei Ming, Dai Wangshu, Zhang Qiaohui and Xiao Xi. The poems are translated next to their original text and the book includes essays about the art of poetry translation.

Yilin Wang is a writer, poet and Chinese-English translator. Her fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction have appeared in Clarkesworld, The Malahat Review, Arc Poetry Magazine, Grain, CV2, carte blanche and The Tyee. She is based in Vancouver.

Wang waslonglisted for the2020 CBC Poetry Prize.