Whale Killing by Nolan Natasha

Nolan Natasha has made the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for Whale Killing.

• 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.

About Nolan Natasha

Nolan Natasha is a queer and trans writer, performer and filmmaker. Of Faroese and English ancestry, he lives in Halifax. He has been a finalist for the Ralph Gustafson Poetry Contest, the Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest and was the runner-up for the Thomas Morton Prize in fiction. His debut poetry collection, I Can Hear You, Can You Hear Me?, was released in the fall of 2019 with Invisible Publishing. He is currently working on a collection of short stories and a series of video poems.

Entry in five-ish words

"A queer viking love poem."

The poem's source of inspiration

"A good deal of my work is about a connection with a place and connections between people. This poem has a foot in both these themes: the complex ways identity can be tied up one's relationship to a place and its traditions and the ways that where we're from can be significant when revealing ourselves to another person.

A good deal of my work is about a connection with a place and connections between people.

"The inspiration for this poem draws on a moment where I wanted to share myself deeply, beyond an idealized surface, down to the blood and guts. It's a love poem about where I'm from and it's a song for those rare moments where you feel an intense desire to reveal all of yourself to someone." 

First lines

Sixty whales out on the pier, 
most of the blubber gone. 
Their sideways faces still 
smiling. In the middle 
of the dock a small boy is eating 
a banana. His father carves 
the side of a whale, taking pieces
for Omma and Abba too. 

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.