A Vernon-born author cracked the longlist for the 2022 CBC Nonfiction Prize.
Aaron Tucker, who now lives in Toronto, is one of 31 writers to be longlisted for the prize for his book A Cowboy’s Work.
Tucker is a poet and novelist whose latest collection, Catalogue d’oiseaux, was published by Book*hug Press in 2021. His novel Y was published by Éditions La Peuplade in 2020. He is currently a PhD candidate in cinema and media arts at York University, where he studies facial recognition technologies. Tucker currently teaches creative writing at Toronto Metropolitan University.
“There were two pictures that were the inspiration for this piece — both of which are mentioned in the story. The first is a recent photo of an American border guard, on horseback, chasing down migrants in a violent and disgusting fashion,” Tucker said.
“The second is a black and white photo of my great grandfather in his cowboy gear with his horse. I wanted to consider these photos side-by-side as a way of challenging my own love and histories as they relate to cowboy culture.”
The shortlist was announced on Thursday (Sept. 15) and making the list was Cayenne Bradley for Your House; Susan Cormier for Advice to a New Beekeeper; Seh Woo, My Teeth by Kerissa Dickie; Tek Tek by Y.S. Lee; and Jane Ozkowski for Storkatorium.
The winner will be announced on Sept. 22.
The winner of the nonfiction prize will receive $6,000 and a two-week writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, along with being published on the CBC Books website. Four runners-up will receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.
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