Alessandra Naccarato wins the 2017 CBC Poetry Prize

AlessandraNaccarato has won the 2017 CBC Poetry Prize for Postcards for my Sister.

Naccaratowill receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and her poem will be published in Air Canada enRoute magazine and on CBC Books. She will also receive a 10-day writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

This year's jury was comprised of Gary Barwin, Rosanna Deerchild and Humble The Poet.

"The women in Postcards for my Sisterface challenges, loss and sorrow, but they respond with dignity and resilience," the jury said in a statement. "In beautiful and arresting language, the poem introduces us to matriarchs, 'big-mouthed women, fat/as trees,'and the patterns which join grandmothers, mothers, sisters and their children to the sometimes difficult realities of birth and death, but also to nature and each other."

• How AlessandraNaccarato wrote the poem that won the 2017 CBCPoetry Prize

Postcards for my Sister was selected from more than English-language 2,400 submissions. There were more than 3,500 submissions in both English and French.

CBC Books4:25Alessandra Naccarato recites Postcards for my Sister

Alessandra Naccarato reads her submission to the 2017 CBC Poetry Prize.

The other finalists were Cornelia Hooglandfor Tourists Stroll a Victoria Waterway, Laboni Islam for Lunar Landing, 1966, Sarah Kabambafor Carry, and Harold Rhenisch for Saying the Names Shanty.The finalists each received $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and had their stories published on CBC Books.

Marie-Eve Blanchard won the Radio-Canada French-language grand prize, Prix de posie, for her poemLouise.

TheCBCLiterary Prizeshave been recognizing Canadian writers since 1979. Past winners include Michael Ondaatje, Carol Shields, Michael Winter and Frances Itani.

• Check out the past CBC Literary Prizes winners

If you're interested in submitting to the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2018 CBC Nonfiction Prize opens Jan. 1, 2018.