the body & the ghost by Eileen Mary Holowka

Eileen Mary Holowka has made the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for the body & the ghost.

• 31 writers make the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize longlist

The winner of the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have their work published on CBC Books and have the opportunity to attend a two-week writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.

The shortlist will be announced on Nov. 18 and the winner will be announced on Nov. 24.

If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the CBC Nonfiction Prize opens in January and the CBC Poetry Prize opens in April.

This story includes discussion of suicide

About Eileen Mary Holowka

Eileen Mary Holowka is a writer and PhD candidate living in Montreal. Her research looks at the intersections of endometriosis and social media. She has also worked in game development and literary publishing and is one of the editors of the upcoming CV2 issue Sick Poetics. She published a digital narrative, circuits, in 2018, which can be played for free online.

Entry in five-ish words

"Survival is bittersweet and haunting."

The poem's source of inspiration

"Grief and survival, particularly following my brother's suicide and our experiences being harassed and threatened on social media.

This poem is about our histories with abuse, illness, and madness, and the ways in which trauma and harm can spread between people like a virus.

"This poem is about our histories with abuse, illness, and madness, and the ways in which trauma and harm can spread between people like a virus."

First lines

Being haunted isn't easy, but it's different than you'd think. More
heavy and dull, like a hangover. A cramp that never quite goes away.
It's a familiar fatigue, the kind you grow tired of, where the world
shrinks to the blade of a knife — a glimmer of a bed and then just a
wound in the sheets. The ghost of a brother, a suicide. A collection of
symptoms. A fragment of light fading in and out, until just a body
remains.

About the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize

The winner of the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have their work published on CBC Books and attend a two-week writing residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.

The 2022 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January. The 2022 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April.

If you are thinking of suicide or know someone who is, here are ways you can get help:

• Canada Suicide Prevention Service: 1-833-456-4566 (Phone) | 45645 (Text) | crisisservicescanada.ca (Chat)
• In Quebec (French): Association québécoise de prévention du suicide: 1-866-APPELLE (1-866-277-3553)
• Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868 (Phone), Live Chat counselling at www.kidshelpphone.ca
• Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention: Find a crisis centre

If you feel your mental health or the mental health of a loved one is at risk of an immediate crisis, call 911.