CBC Books, CBC’s online home for literary content, together with its partners the Canada Council for the Arts and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, today announced Rachel Robb of Toronto as the winner of the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize. Robb’s poem, Palimpsest County, was selected from more than 2,700 entries.
As the grand-prize winner, Robb will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and her poem has been published on CBC Books. Robb will discuss her winning poem on Bookends with Mattea Roach. The interview will air at a later date on CBC Radio and CBC Listen.
The 2024 CBC Poetry Prize jurors Shani Mootoo, Garry Gottfriedson and Emily Austin, said this about Robb’s poem:
“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. 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.’”
Rachel Robb said, “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.”
The four runners-up for the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize, who will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, are: Cicely Grace of Vancouver, B.C. 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, B.C. for The Killer and the Harpist.
The winner of the Prix de poésie Radio-Canada 2024 was also announced: Marise Belletête for Hier elles se sont coupées pour connaître leur âge de conifère. More information is available at ICI.Radio-canada.ca/icionlit.
For more information on the CBC Literary Prizes, please visit CBCBooks.ca.