Literary Prizes
The winner will receive $6,000, a two-week writing residency and have their story published on CBC Books. Submissions are open until March 1, 2025.
The winner will receive $6,000, a writing residency and have their work published on CBC Books
Daphné Santos-Vieira · CBC Books
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Zoe Whittall, Danny Ramadan and Helen Knott will judge the 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize.
The winner will receive $6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency atBanff Centre for Arts and Creativityand have their work published onCBC Books.
Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand have their story published onCBC Books.
The2025 CBC Nonfiction Prizeis open for submissions until March 1, 2025at 4:59 p.m. ET.
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The 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize is currently accepting submissions
Zoe Whittall is an author, poet and screenwriter. Her past works include short story collectionWild Failure, the novelsThe Fake,The Best Kind of PeopleandBottle Rocket Hearts. She has also written poetry collections includingThe Emily Valentine PoemsandThe Best Ten Minutes of Your Life.
She has received the Writers' Trust Dayne Ogilvie Award, a Lambda Literary Award and been shortlisted for theScotiabank Giller Prize. She currently lives in Ontario.
No Credit Riveris a memoir followingZoe Whittallthrough six years of her life which include the loss of apregnancy, a global pandemic and abandoned love. Honest, emotional and painful, the memoir examines anxiety and creativity in the modern world.
LISTEN | Zoe Whittall in conversation with Mattea RoachonBookends: Bookends with Mattea Roach28:03Zoe Whittall: Why heartbreak is a valid form of grief
Danny Ramadan is a Vancouver-based Syrian-Canadian author and advocate for 2SLGBTQ+ refugees. He graduated with an MFA in creative writing from UBC and received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Adler University.
Ramadan's debut novelThe Clothesline Swingwas longlisted forCanada Readsin 2018 and his second novelThe Foghorn Echoeswon a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction.
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Danny Ramadan gets raw and real in hismemoirCrooked Teeth— read an excerpt now
Crooked Teethis Ramadan's memoir that refutes the oversimplified refugee narrative and transports readers on an epic and often fraught journey from Damascus to Cairo, Beirut and Vancouver. Told with nuance and fearless intimacy about being a queer Syrian-Canadian, this memoir revisits parts of Ramadan's past he'd rather forget.
Crooked Teethwas a finalist in the nonfiction category of the 2024 Governor General's Literary Awards.
LISTEN | Danny Ramadan discusses thehonest truths of being a queer Syrian refugee: The Next Chapter19:32Danny Ramadan on seeking refuge and acceptance
Helen Knott is a Dane Zaa, Cree, Métisand mixed settler-descent writer from Prophet River First Nations. She is a 2019 RBC Taylor Prize Emerging author.
She is also the author of thememoirIn My Own Moccasins,whichwon the Saskatchewan Book Award for Indigenous Peoples' Publishing and was longlisted for the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize.
Becoming a Matriarchis a memoir that delves into Helen Knott's experience after losing both her mother and grandmother in just over six months. It spans themes of mourning, sobriety through loss and generational dreaming and explores what it truly means to be a matriarch.
Becoming a Matriarchwas a finalist in the nonfiction category of the 2024 Governor General's Literary Awards.
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Helen Knott's Becoming a Matriarch among Indigo's Best Books of the Year 2023
The jury will select the shortlist and winner. Apanel of established writers and editors from across Canadareview the submissions and will determine the longlist from all the submissions.
The longlist, shortlist and winner will be announced in fall2025.
Last year's winner wasAldona Dziedziejkofor her essayIce Safety Chart: Fragments.
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Aldona Dziedziejko's poetic reflections on land and loss wins 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize
TheCBC Literary Prizeshave been recognizing Canadian writers since 1979.Past winnersincludeDavid Bergen,Michael Ondaatje,Carol ShieldsandMichael Winter.
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16 famous Canadian writers who won CBC Literary Prizes
Need a little motivation to get you going? Subscribe to the CBC Nonfiction Prize newsletter.
If you're looking to submit to the Prix du récit Radio-Canada,you can enter here. Les Prix de la création Radio-Canada also announced their jury today.
The 2025CBC Poetry Prizewill open in Apriland theCBC Short Story Prizewill open in September.
Related Stories
- The 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize is open!
- Books of the Year The best Canadian nonfiction of 2024
- Books by past CBC Literary Prizes winners and finalists that came out in 2024
- Jordan Abel, Danny Ramadan and Cherie Dimaline among finalists for $25K Governor General's Literary Awards
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