Rachel Robb explores what reconciliation means to a non-Indigenous person and wins 2024 CBC Poetry Prize
The Toronto writer will receive $6,000, a writing residency and her poem has been published on CBC Books
Rachel Robb has won the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize for her poem Palimpsest County.
She will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
Robb's poem Palimpsest County was published on CBC Books. Robb will also be interviewed on an upcoming episode of Bookends with Mattea Roach.
Robb is a Toronto-based writer and educator of Jamaican, Irish and Canadian heritage. Her poetry has been featured as a finalist in the Bridport Prize anthology and shortlisted for The Fiddlehead's Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize, The Alpine Fellowship and most recently, the Montreal International Poetry Prize.
Her work has also appeared in anthologies for Hamilton's gritLit Festival and The Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story, where she placed first and second, respectively. A graduate of the Humber School for Writers, she is currently working on her first collection of poetry.
This year's winner and finalists were selected by a jury composed of Shani Mootoo, Garry Gottfriedson and Emily Austin.
"Palimpsest County is a layered poem emulating place and identity. The writer's voice is descriptive, and in a sense, self revealing without being obvious. Its word choice is striking and projects a strong reflection of setting and sentiment. The poet's gritty, folksy, unpretentious phrasing is deeply affecting and compassionate. It's politically rooted in time, space and subject matter," the jury said in a statement.
"This is a disarming poem about colonialism, climate change, and the deep, thorny love and concern that exists for this landscape — this contentiously governed land. We unanimously loved this poem, its voice, and its sentiment that, 'we (all of us) could do better.'"
We unanimously loved this poem, its voice, and its sentiment that, 'we (all of us) could do better.'- 2024 CBC Poetry Prize jury
Robb wrote that Palimpsest County was inspired by the "contradictory layers" of history in small-town Ontario.
"The image of a palimpsest resonated with me as a metaphor for resistance; despite constant attempts at erasure through time, open hostility and commercialization of land, the presence of Indigenous people endures.
"Mostly, I wanted to explore the internal breaking open that must occur within a settler on this land before reconciliation can begin. This rupture takes different forms for different people; for some, it never happens.
"For the narrator of this poem — an outsider, an immigrant — she attempts to situate herself on this shifting landscape. Ultimately, it is the beauty and vulnerability of the natural world that begins to shape her role in reconciliation."
In Palimpsest County, Robb explores what reconciliation means to a non-Indigenous person and follows the narrator's emotional journey in relation to her role in reconciliation.
"I want this poem to inspire non-Indigenous people to reflect on their role in the process of reconciliation and how intertwined it is with protecting the natural world. I hope it encourages people to approach this journey with openness and love," Robb said.
I want this poem to inspire non-Indigenous people to reflect on their role in the process of reconciliation.- Rachel Robb
Palimpsest County was a bit of an experiment for Robb, who doesn't normally write in this stream-of-consciousness style. "I'm a believer that the poem dictates the form and this fluid, stream-of-consciousness form felt right," she said.
She also feels writing freeform enabled her to "access the narrator's emotional journey in relation to her role in reconciliation" and address these feelings without intellectualizing it in early drafts.
"There were times over the two months that I wrote it where I did feel a bit overwhelmed by the the pacing and the amount of words and I left it for about two or three weeks and didn't look at it. I thought that was wise."
"When I came back, I did look at it less through an emotional lens and more through a stylistic lens, an intellectual lens, and started to rearrange a few of the order of a few of her thoughts. I needed to take that pause because initially it was a rush of a feeling and thoughts and I couldn't quite order it. So I did need to build an extra time to edit it after the fact."
While this poem was a departure from Robb's regular style, she felt it was important to submit it to the CBC Poetry Prize so that it would get read. "The content, particularly around reconciliation, meant so much to me on a personal level" — and it resonated with the jury as well.
I'm overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement! Writing is such a solitary pursuit so having an audience is precious to me. It all feels a bit otherworldly right now, but in the best possible way.- Rachel Robb
"I'm overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement! Writing is such a solitary pursuit so having an audience is precious to me. It all feels a bit otherworldly right now, but in the best possible way," Robb told CBC Books in an email.
Robb joins a long list of writers who have won CBC Literary Prizes, such as Susan Musgrave, Lorna Crozier, Alison Pick, Michael Ondaatje and Carol Shields. The Prizes have been recognizing Canadian writers since 1979.
The other four finalists are Cicely Grace of Vancouver for There is no neutral way to say I was fourteen, Emily Yiling Ma of Burnaby, B.C., for 吃苦 (Eat the Bitterness), Eleonore Schönmaier of Ketch Harbour, N.S., for Northern Childhood and Catherine St. Denis of Victoria for The Killer and the Harpist.
They will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts.
The longlist was compiled by a group of qualified editors and writers from across Canada from more than 2,700 submissions.
The readers come up with a preliminary list of approximately 100 submissions that are then forwarded to a second reading committee. It is this committee who will decide upon the 30 entries that comprise the longlist that is forwarded to the jury. The jury selects the shortlist and the eventual winner from the readers' longlisted selections.
Works are judged anonymously on the basis of the participant's use of language, originality of subject and writing style. For more on how the judging for the CBC Literary Prizes works, visit the FAQ page.
Last year's winner was Kyo Lee for her poem lotus flower blooming into breasts.
The 2024 winner of the Prix de poésie Radio-Canada is Marise Belletête for her poem Hier elles se sont coupées pour connaître leur âge de conifère.
For Canadians interested in other writing competitions, check out the CBC Literary Prizes. The 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January and the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April. The CBC Short Story Prize will open in September.
