Fireweed by Michelle Porter

Michelle Porterhas made the2019 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlistfor Fireweed.

• Calling all writers! The 2020 CBC Short Story Prize is now open

About Michelle

Michelle Porter is a citizen of the Mtis Nation and a member of the Manitoba Metis Federationand has called Newfoundland and Labrador home for almost10 years. She's an award-winning journalist and poet. Her nonfiction work has been published in journals, booksand newspapers across Canada. She is currently the nonfiction editor with Riddle Fence and is studying creative writing and teaching journalism. Her first book of poetry, called Inquiries, was published this year. She's working on a book of nonfiction about her grandmother, her grandfather and traditional Mtis music. She lives in St. John's.

Entry in five-ish words

"Fire, history and Mtis music."

The story's source of inspiration

"My great-grandfather and my grandmother were part of a family musical band that played traditional Mtis music in the 1930s and 1940s. I've been doing research for a book on that topic. My great aunt in B.C., was telling me her memories and stories about their music on the phone during the time that some of the worse fires were raging in the province. The two stories naturally came together."

First lines

Must be late 1950s when Lilian comes to the house in Mission.

She's followed the family there from the house in the woods in Ruskin, and before that all the way from Manitoba. She's there to help with the seven children. They're Mtis, though this means something different in British Columbia than it did where they're from, Manitoba. Estelle, my grandmother, the family beauty, is ill. Spends her days in bed. Depression.

So nobody's there to stop Aunt Lilian from setting the fire out the back of the house.

About the 2019 CBC Nonfiction Prize

The winner of the 2019CBC Nonfiction Prizewill receive $6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, have their work published onCBC Booksand attend a two-week writing residency atthe Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand have their workpublished onCBC Books.

The shortlist will be announced on Sept. 18, 2019. The winner will be announced on Sept. 25, 2019.