Laurel Borisenko has made the 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for The Space Between Views. 

The winner of the 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and have their work published on CBC Books. The four remaining 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 Sept. 18 and the winner will be revealed on Sept. 25. 

If you’re interested in other writing competitions, check out the CBC Literary Prizes. The 2026 CBC Short Story Prize is currently accepting submissions. The 2026 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January and the 2026 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April.   

About Laurel Borisenko

Born in Calgary and earning B.Ed and M.Ed from University of Alberta, Laurel Borisenko spent two decades in emergency relief and refugee protection work with UNHCR and international NGOs. Beginning with refugee advocacy in Edmonton before her first international posting to Geneva in 2001, she has since worked in every region of sub-Saharan Africa, from refugee work in Kenya to child protection in eastern Congo. She has contributed chapters to two books and published research in academic journals while earning her PhD from the University of Amsterdam on peacebuilding through the arts. Now retired to Vancouver Island, she is completing a memoir of her international work. 

Entry in five-ish words

“Refugees, kidnappings, rescues — emotional vertigo.” 

The source of inspiration

“I arrived in Dadaab refugee camp during the 2011 Horn of Africa famine, which morphed into Al-Shabaab kidnappings of aid workers, one of whom was a personal friend.  It seemed so other-worldly to be working in this intense and dangerous setting, then experience the emotional vertigo of being transported, in the time of a flight, back to the oasis of Vancouver Island. I’m writing about the challenge of integrating experiences that seem impossible to reconcile.” 

What the readers had to say

“A slice-of-life tale with engaging writing that brings readers into the minds of Canadian aid workers overseas who are dealing with friendship and fear while facing danger.”

First lines 

Dadaab, Kenya, July 2011

When I arrive at the UN compound in Dadaab, I’m assigned a small room and bathroom with a shared kitchen. Dadaab is a small remote town surrounded by desert scrubland in eastern Kenya.

I’ve come here on contract with UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, to interview refugee families to see who is eligible for resettlement in countries such as Canada.  For the next six months, I will live in this guarded compound, surrounded by barbed wire fence, with all the other humanitarian aid workers.

Check out the rest of the longlist

The longlist was selected from more than 1,300 submissions. A team of 10 writers and editors from across Canada compiled the list. 

The jury selects the shortlist and the eventual winner from the readers’ longlisted selections. This year’s jury is composed of Zoe Whittall, Danny Ramadan and Helen Knott. 

The complete longlist is: 

I married a spy. The secrecy broke my heart. by Diana Bayko (Calgary)  The Sensibilities of Dogs by Antoinette Bekker (Medicine Hat, Alta.)  The Space Between Views by Laurel Borisenko (Chemainus, B.C.)  Day Shift, Night Shift by Jo-Anne Dusel (Moose Jaw, Sask.)  The Pauper by Izzy Ferguson (Dundas, Ont.)  Summer Ash by Rachel Foster (Vancouver)  Reflections of a Teen Vessel by Cori Francis (Barnwell, Alta.)  The Boy Who Loved Alice by Charles Hayter (Toronto)  A Mother’s Guide to Urban Gardening by Michelle Hébert (Halifax)  I Wash the Purple Water Bottle by Kelley La (Calgary)  I got used to You by Yasmin Ladha (Muscat, Oman)  Death on the Seventh by Jim Libiran (Scarborough, Ont.)  Fishing with My Father: Reflections on Newfoundland’s Cod Culture by Boyd Lundrigan (Spaniard’s Bay, N.L.)  Songs for Linda by Carrie Mac (Vancouver)  The Invisible Woman by Laura MacGregor (Waterloo, Ont.)  We are baptized for the dead in Taber before going to A&W for burgers and root beer by Cheryl Markosky (London, U.K.)  Small Miracles by Anastasia McEwen (Fergus, Ont.)  The First Apartment by Jennifer McGuire (Owen Sound, Ont.)  The Home That Crossed Ocean by Raffi Minas (Calgary)  Little America by Nancy Newman (Edmonton)  The Townie Time Machine by Ian Orti (Berlin, Germany)  Cancer Stage Exit 4: A Memoir by Lena Palacios (Montreal)  The Art of Falling Overboard by Loghan Paylor (Chilliwack, B.C.)  The Dances We Do With Our Children by Trenton Pomeroy (Rothesay, N.B.)  36 Views of Mount Royal by Lorne Roberts (Montreal) Out of Love by Barclay Rose (North Cowichan, B.C.)  In Case I Die by Crystal Semaganis (Bear Island, Ont.)  The Morel Moral: A Public Service Announcement by Shelley Wood (Kelowna, B.C.)