Literary Prizes·CBC Literary Prizes

33 writers make the CBC Poetry Prize longlist

The winner will receive $6,000, attend a 10-day writing residency and have their story published on CBC Books and in Air Canada enRoute magazine.
The winner will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, attend a 10-day writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and have their story published on CBC Books and in Air Canada enRoute magazine.

Thirty-three writers have made the longlist for the 2017 CBC Poetry Prize. The complete longlist is:

The grand prize winner will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, attend a 10-day writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and have their poetry published on CBC Books and in Air Canada enRoute magazine

Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their poetry published on CBC Books.  ​​

The finalists and eventual winner will be selected by the jury from this longlist. The 2017 jury is comprised of Rosanna Deerchild, Gary Barwin and Humble The Poet. The shortlist will be announced next week, and winner will be revealed on Nov. 22, 2017.

The longlist was selected from more than 2,400 English-language submissions. There were more than 3,500 submissions in both English and French.

The longlist was selected by a team of readers made up of writers and editors from across Canada. This year's team of readers was comprised of Guyleigh Johnson, Richard Kelly Kemick, Gwen Benaway, Raoul Fernandes, Nyla Matuk, Garry Gottfriedson, Adèle Barclay, Owain Nicholson, Faizal Deen and El Jones.

You can check out the French-language longlist here.

The 2016 CBC Poetry Prize winner was Michael Fraser for his poem African Canadian in Union Blue.    

The 2017 CBC Nonfiction Prize winner was Becky Blake for Trust Exercise. The 2017 CBC Short Story Prize winner was Alix Hawley for Witching

If you are interested in entering the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2018 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January 2018.

The CBC Literary Prizes have been recognizing Canadian writers since 1979. Past winners include Michael Ondaatje, Carol Shields, Michael Winter and Frances Itani.​