"My Brother's Engagement Party" by Joshua Levy
2017 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist
Joshua Levy has made the 2017 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for "My Brother's Engagement".
About Joshua
Joshua Levy has been published by Oxford University Press, Véhicule Press, Maisonneuve, the Malahat Review, Event, Queen's Quarterly, Vallum and the Rumpus. He tells stories about his life on CBC Radio and on stage. Joshua is the winner of the 2017 carte blanche/CNFC creative nonfiction competition and is a past winner of the QWF Quebec Writing Competition. He recently received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to write his memoir. Joshua and his wife split their time between Montreal, Toronto and Lisbon, Portugal.
Entry in five-ish words
My brother's engagement party.
The story's source of inspiration
"Depression. Frustration. Confusion. I was freshly unemployed, mourning the end of a long-term relationship, and lonely and marooned in a city (Toronto) that I didn't want to be in. And here was my younger brother: suddenly engaged, happy and thriving. But I wasn't jealous. Instead, all of that love in the air felt palpable. It swirled all around me; wedding love and sibling love and parental love. I wanted to document everything I saw — and figure love out. That's why I wrote this story."
First lines
"Mid July. And the thought struck me that I ought to be happier than I was. We were huddled — the six of us plus Seamus, the oversized black Goldendoodle — by the sliding glass doors in the kitchen of our country house 'up north.' Green trees. Green grass. Blue sky. I could make out a glimmering flake of blue Lac des Chats if I stood on the long picnic table on our terrace and squinted between trees. We were in the Laurentian Mountains; about an hour from Montreal. Everything was hot and windy, and we were preparing to do what my family did best: eat."
About the 2017 CBC Nonfiction Prize
The winner of the 2017 CBC Nonfiction Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, will have an opportunity to 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. Four finalists will receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their story published on CBC Books.