{"id":20021,"date":"2025-09-14T03:43:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T03:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/20021\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T03:43:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T03:43:25","slug":"in-case-i-die-by-crystal-semaganis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/20021\/","title":{"rendered":"In Case I Die by Crystal Semaganis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crystal Semaganis\u00a0has made the\u00a02025\u00a0CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0In Case\u00a0I Die.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The winner of the 2025\u00a0CBC Nonfiction Prize<\/a>\u00a0will receive $6,000 from the\u00a0Canada Council for the Arts<\/a>, a two-week writing residency at\u00a0Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity<\/a>\u00a0and have their work published on\u00a0CBC Books<\/a>. The four remaining finalists will each receive $1,000 from the\u00a0Canada Council for the Arts<\/a>\u00a0and have their work published on\u00a0CBC Books<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The shortlist will be announced on Sept. 18\u00a0and the winner will be revealed on Sept. 25.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you’re interested in other writing competitions, check out the\u00a0CBC Literary Prizes<\/a>. The 2026\u00a0CBC Short Story Prize<\/a>\u00a0is currently accepting submissions.\u00a0The 2026\u00a0CBC Nonfiction Prize<\/a>\u00a0will open in January and the 2026\u00a0CBC Poetry Prize<\/a>\u00a0will open in April.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

About\u00a0Crystal Semaganis<\/p>\n

Crystal Semaganis lives on a reserve in Northern Ontario and is an activist.\u00a0 Growing up in Saskatchewan as a child of the Sixties Scoop, reclaiming her stolen Nehiyaw (Plains Cree) life has been her focus for over four decades.\u00a0 Overcoming Colonial Violence is the goal, and she uses the creative arts to educate and inspire through poetry, short stories, a blog and other works.\u00a0 A mother of four and grandmother to two, her writing illuminates the reality of indigenous life in Canada with clarity, truth and grace.\u00a0Crystal’s social media reaches over 175K Indigenous people daily.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Semaganis was longlisted for the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize<\/a> for kis\u00e2kihitin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Entry in five-ish words<\/p>\n

“Things that cannot be\u00a0ignored.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0source of inspiration<\/p>\n

“The weight of being targeted daily and thinking of my family.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

What the readers had to say<\/p>\n

“Blistering and blunt, a record of endurance in a country still committed to erasure. Leaves you to\u00a0wonder: How to stay alive in a world built for your disappearance?”<\/p>\n

First lines\u00a0<\/p>\n

“POS”<\/p>\n

“Get a job”<\/p>\n

“Freeloader”<\/p>\n

This be some of what they say to me.\u00a0 Somehow my being in this skin means I am not permitted to breathe the same air, not permitted to make eye contact.\u00a0 Often, even the sound of my Voice is an assault on the existence of others more privileged than I<\/p>\n

Aiy, I be a Plains Cree woman, displaced, poor, sleeping on a donated mattress on a cement floor in a basement on a rez.\u00a0Can’t get more humble than that, and still, these messages of hatred and disgust make their way to me. I be no threat.\u00a0Right?<\/p>\n

Check out the rest of the longlist<\/p>\n

The longlist was selected from more than 1,300 submissions.\u00a0A\u00a0team of 10\u00a0writers and editors from across Canada<\/a>\u00a0compiled the list.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The jury selects the shortlist and the eventual winner from the readers’ longlisted selections. This year’s jury is composed\u00a0of\u00a0Zoe Whittall, Danny Ramadan and Helen Knott<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The complete\u00a0longlist is:\u00a0<\/p>\n

I married a spy. The secrecy broke my heart.<\/a> by\u00a0Diana\u00a0Bayko (Calgary)\u00a0 The Sensibilities of Dogs<\/a> by\u00a0Antoinette\u00a0Bekker (Medicine Hat, Alta.)\u00a0 The Space Between Views<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Laurel\u00a0Borisenko (Chemainus, B.C.)\u00a0 Day Shift, Night Shift<\/a>\u00a0by Jo-Anne Dusel (Moose Jaw, Sask.)\u00a0 The Pauper<\/a> by\u00a0Izzy\u00a0Ferguson (Dundas, Ont.)\u00a0 Summer Ash<\/a> by\u00a0Rachel\u00a0Foster (Vancouver)\u00a0 Reflections of a Teen Vessel<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Cori\u00a0Francis\u00a0(Barnwell, Alta.)\u00a0 The Boy Who Loved Alice<\/a> by\u00a0Charles\u00a0Hayter (Toronto)\u00a0 A Mother’s Guide to Urban Gardening<\/a> by\u00a0Michelle\u00a0H\u00e9bert (Halifax)\u00a0 I Wash the Purple Water Bottle<\/a> by\u00a0Kelley\u00a0La (Calgary)\u00a0 I got used to You<\/a> by\u00a0Yasmin\u00a0Ladha (Muscat,\u00a0Oman)\u00a0 Death on the Seventh<\/a> by\u00a0Jim Libiran\u00a0(Scarborough, Ont.)\u00a0 Fishing with My Father:\u00a0Reflections on Newfoundland’s Cod Culture<\/a> by\u00a0Boyd\u00a0Lundrigan\u00a0(Spaniard’s Bay, N.L.)\u00a0 Songs for Linda<\/a> by\u00a0Carrie\u00a0Mac (Vancouver)\u00a0 The Invisible Woman<\/a> by\u00a0Laura\u00a0MacGregor\u00a0(Waterloo, Ont.)\u00a0 We are baptized for the dead in Taber\u00a0before going to A&W for burgers and root beer<\/a> by\u00a0Cheryl\u00a0Markosky\u00a0(London, U.K.)\u00a0 Small Miracles<\/a> by\u00a0Anastasia\u00a0McEwen\u00a0(Fergus, Ont.)\u00a0 The First Apartment<\/a> by\u00a0Jennifer\u00a0McGuire (Owen Sound, Ont.)\u00a0 The Home That Crossed Ocean<\/a> by\u00a0Raffi\u00a0Minas (Calgary)\u00a0 Little America<\/a> by\u00a0Nancy\u00a0Newman (Edmonton)\u00a0 The Townie Time Machine<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Ian\u00a0Orti (Berlin, Germany)\u00a0 Cancer Stage Exit 4: A Memoir<\/a> by\u00a0Lena\u00a0Palacios (Montreal)\u00a0 The Art of Falling Overboard<\/a> by\u00a0Loghan\u00a0Paylor (Chilliwack, B.C.)\u00a0 The Dances We Do With Our Children<\/a> by\u00a0Trenton\u00a0Pomeroy (Rothesay, N.B.)\u00a0 36 Views of Mount Royal<\/a> by\u00a0Lorne\u00a0Roberts (Montreal) Out of Love<\/a> by\u00a0Barclay\u00a0Rose (North Cowichan, B.C.)\u00a0 In Case\u00a0I Die<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Crystal Semaganis\u00a0(Bear Island, Ont.)\u00a0 The Morel Moral: A Public Service Announcement<\/a> by\u00a0Shelley Wood (Kelowna, B.C.)\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crystal Semaganis\u00a0has made the\u00a02025\u00a0CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist\u00a0for\u00a0In Case\u00a0I Die.\u00a0 The winner of the 2025\u00a0CBC Nonfiction Prize\u00a0will receive $6,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[288,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-20021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}