How winning the CBC Nonfiction Prize took Leslie A. Davidson's writing career to a whole new level
The 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize is open for submissions until March 1, 2024
Dancing in Small Spaces is the story of a marriage. In 2011, Leslie A. Davidson and her husband, Lincoln Ford, were finding adventure in their retirement through the outdoors, travelling and preparing to be grandparents. Then, when Lincoln started experiencing confusion and Leslie experienced tremors in her body, a double diagnosis of Lewy body dementia and Parkinson's disease transformed the couple's lives.
In her memoir, Davidson documents the years following the diagnoses, including navigating how to care and be cared for, reckoning with the physical symptoms and community support. She writes her way through the emotional turmoil, sharing the lessons she learned along the way about herself and the man she loved, in a bid to move toward understanding and acceptance.
But Davidson first wrote about this all in her story Adaptation, which won the 2016 CBC Nonfiction Prize. Adaptation is part of Dancing in Small Spaces, and it was the piece of writing that took Davidson's writing career to a whole new level.
The 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize is currently accepting submissions. The winner will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books. They will also attend a two-week writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.
You can submit memoir, biography, humour writing, essay, personal essay travel writing and feature articles up to 2,000 words. The deadline to submit is Friday, March 1, 2024 at 4:59 p.m. ET. Submit now for a chance to win!
In 2023, Davidson spoke to CBC Kelowna's afternoon radio show Radio West with Sarah Penton and offered advice to those thinking about entering the CBC Nonfiction Prize.
Talk to us about the impact that entering the prize had on your own writing career.
Well, I've always loved to write, and I've written on and off for years and years and years. I was an elementary school teacher, and when I needed something for the classroom, I did some writing. But winning the prize made me feel like a writer, like a real writer. It gave me such confidence, and it connected me to some really wonderful people.
When I was submitting, the rejections became more personal and kinder. I thought that was pretty cool.
The quality of the rejection letters I was receiving from publishers and editors improved. I would include in my CV that I had won the CBC Nonfiction Prize in 2016 and I think they took a closer look at my work. When I was submitting, the rejections became more personal and kinder. I thought that was pretty cool.
That is part of the path that you take though, right? Like knowing that the rejection rejections are going to come. Tell me about your writing career. What got you started into this journey?
It was something I always planned on doing when I retired. I was a teacher and a mom and very engaged in Grand Forks, B.C., where we were living at the time and doing all the things that you do in small communities. And I love to write, but I didn't have much time for it. In fact, my Christmas letter used to go in June or July when the school year had finished and I had time.
When I retired, I sat down to write the great Canadian children's novel. That I did do and completed. That wasn't great and it collected tons of rejections. Then I submitted my first picture book, In the Red Canoe, and it was accepted and published. Then my husband and I both got sick in 2011. I was diagnosed with Parkinson's and Lincoln was diagnosed with probable Alzheimer's, but it turned out to be a form of dementia called Lewy body dementia.
I was writing emails to my family and our friends, keeping them informed, and just found that writing was really helping me to cope with what we were dealing with day-to-day. That got me started on this particular story and that is Adaptation. That was the winning entry for the CBC Nonfiction Prize and the book that has been built around it.
Tell us a bit more about the book Dancing in Small Spaces.
Well, it's a collection of scenes of various lengths. It's not put together in a typical book structure. It's short, short, episodic pieces. Some are half a page, some are five or six pages long. I think of it as a literary crazy quilt. It's all these bits and pieces that tell the story of what our life was like from the time of diagnosis till till after Lincoln's death in 2017.
It includes our move from Grand Forks to Revelstoke, putting him into care, dealing with grief and there's a little bit of the back story of what our relationship was like in the beginning and who we were as a couple. It wasn't always a tranquil relationship. It was never boring and it was not perfect. But we had a great time. I wanted to make that very, very clear that before illness took over our lives — and it did in a big way — we had a whole lot to be very grateful for.
Can you tell me more about the journey that this led you to?
People go through hardship, but writing helps you navigate your way through this journey. It gave me perspective on what we were experiencing when I was in the middle of the big feelings, in the middle of the big emotions. Writing it down would set off at a little bit of a distance so that I was able to see that that wasn't our entire picture, that our whole life was not about disease and neuro dying brain cells and that we were so surrounded by love in our communities and compassion and kindness and that we also were still laughing together right up and almost till the end.
Writing it down would kind of set off at a little bit of a distance so that I was able to see that that wasn't our entire picture, that our whole life was not about disease.
Without the writing, I don't know that I'd have been able to recognize those things. I think that you are what you think in many ways. By expressing gratitude, I felt more gratitude, which really eased the burden of caregiving and dealing with my own disease.
This is your own very unique and individual journey, but we are also chatting because of the CBC Nonfiction Prize. That's coming up. What advice do you give to people who have a love for nonfiction and for writing and are looking at telling stories in their own way?
I would just say do it. There's so much benefit from going through the process, whether you're a contest winner or not, whether you can find publication or not. Articulating your journey for yourself, and hopefully for others, is very, very supportive of your mental health and your creativity and your clarity of thinking around what you're having to deal with.
Just be brave, if you can be. If you're interested in publication, submit. Own your truth and share it.
Just be brave, if you can be. If you're interested in publication, submit. Own your truth and share it.
What's part of the process that you enjoy the most?
When I'm really on a roll, when I'm writing, I'm unaware of the time, I'm unaware of my body aches and my jitter, my Parkinson's jitters and I'm just living in the world. Coming out of my head onto the page. When I look back at it or read it out loud, I think, well, that's all right. I did a good job there. I said what I wanted to say.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
