Northern Childhood by EleonoreSchnmaier

Eleonore Schnmaier has made the2024 CBC Poetry Prize shortlistforNorthern Childhood.

She will receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand her poetry collectionhas been published onCBC Books.

The winner of the 2024CBC Poetry Prizewill be announced Nov. 21. They 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.

This year's jury is composed ofShani Mootoo, Garry Gottfriedson and Emily Austin.The jury selects the shortlist and the eventual winner from thelonglist,which is chosen by a reading committee ofwriters and editors from across the country. Submissionsare judged anonymously on the basis of the participant's use of language, originality of subject and writing style.

• Shani Mootoo, Garry Gottfriedson and Emily Austin to judge 2024 CBC Poetry Prize

For more on how thejudging for the CBC Literary Prizes works,visit the FAQ page.

If you're interested in theCBC Literary Prizes, the 2025CBC Nonfiction Prizeopens in January and the 2025CBC Poetry Prizewill open in April.

About Eleonore Schnmaier

Eleonore Schnmaier's latest collection is Field Guide to the Lost Flower of Crete. Wavelengths of Your Song was published in German as part of the Frankfurt Bookfair translation program. Dust Blown Side of the Journey was a finalist for the Eyelands Book Awards (Greece). She has won the Alfred G. Bailey Prize, the Earle Birney Prize, the National Broadsheet Contestand the Sheldon Currie Fiction Prize (second place). Her poetry has been widely anthologized in the US and Canada including in Best Canadian Poetry. Multiple Canadian and international composers have set her poems to music.

SchnmaiertoldCBC Booksabout the inspiration behindNorthern Childhood: "The poems are part of a long sequence that I've been working on for many years based on my childhood.

"Knowing that writers I admire will be reading my work adds additional focus to my writing process."

You can read Northern Childhoodbelow.

1. Understatements

My father's oldest
sister is about
to visit. He writes

We're not poor
but we're living
in poverty.

When she arrives
ants rain down
from the bedroom ceiling

into her curly hair.
She never returns
and writes, How

can you live like this?

2. Counting

With no English
I start school
and when I fail

to count to five
I'm forced
to spend time

in the cloak room
where I feel
a fur collar

brush against
my face
in the darkness.

3. Age Six

My father buys
my first and only
bike, an adult

model. I race
to school
and the scars

on my knees
are visible
decades later

beneath
the hem
of my skirt.

4. Traces

Our teacher wears
mini-skirts
and tells us to lie down

on rolled out
butcher paper
so we can trace

ourselves and turn
our bodies
into art.

5. Chemical Reactions

My father brings
home the chemicals
I need for invisible

ink but years
later I've forgotten
the components.

I no longer need
to hide my words
and thoughts.

6. Fields

On the cyanide field
I'm part of the boy's soccer team
cause I can run

fast, faster, fastest
but I can't outrun
bruised shins

when the boys
miss the ball
and after practice

my face is adorned
with purple
when I'm pushed

into the pink
stucco
school wall.

7. Wallet

As a preteen on
a trip into town
Christmas shopping

I have only a ten
dollar bill
in my wallet

from my paper route
plus my library card.
Placing my hand into

my pocket I find
the wallet gone. But
my mother working

in the grocery store
gets a call from the Snake Pit.
I found your kid's wallet.

Come get it
before I drink
it away.

8. Town

I cycle the ten
dirt-road clicks into town
and on the main street

a car coasts
right up next to me.
I focus

on my balance,
on staying upright
as his arm reaches out

and circles my waist.
I don't look at him
as he pushes me ever so

slightly, ever so gently
just to make his point:
I could if I wanted to

9. Labour at Age Sixteen

In a photo taken by
the security guard
I'm wearing a green

hard hat, filthy T-shirt,
jeans and steel-toed boots.
Behind me is a flaking

concrete wall. In my hands
I hold a gold
brick. Later I'll frame

the image and place
it on the bookshelf.
When visitors come

my roommate turns
the picture face down.
Her studio

portrait captured
her in a party
dress. I say my photo

shows the only
time in my life when
I'll ever hold

a million dollars
in my bare
hands.

10. Penelope

As I'm pulling on my high
boots, my lover corrects
my pronunciation

when I tell him the author
I'll study today
is Penelope Fitzgerald.

Oh, I say. I visualized
it differently.
I'm skilled

in mispronouncing words
and names
in all my three

major languages (more if
you count the ones
I'm still learning).

I don't dare ask, Is music
a language? Words
on the page are silent.

They don't teach me
how to speak, they teach me how
to listen, how to think. On many

days I study on the shore
and wait for all the words
in all their sounds and songs

to sail home to me. This
takes years and some
bright sails as they billow

in the wind
I only ever hear
from a great distance.

Read the other finalists

• There is no neutral way to say I was fourteenby Cicely Grace (Vancouver)
• (Eat the Bitterness)by Emily Yiling Ma (Burnaby, B.C.)
• Palimpsest Countyby Rachel Robb(Toronto)
• The Killer and the Harpistby Catherine St. Denis (Victoria)

About the 2024CBC Poetry Prize

The winner of the 2024CBC Poetry Prizewill receive $6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, have their work published onCBC Booksand win a two-week writing residency atBanff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand have their work published onCBC Books.

If you're interested in theCBC Literary Prizes, the 2025CBC Nonfiction Prizeopens in January and the 2025CBC Poetry Prizeopens in April.The 2026CBC Short Story Prizewill open in September.