P.E.I. writer wins 2022 CBC poetry prize

“In this series, I try to mimic some of the looping, nonsense words and holes in her speech.”

Bren Simmers

P.E.I. writer Bren Simmers has won the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize for her poetry collection inspired by her mother's experience with Alzheimer's.

Simmers won the award for her collection of poems, Spell World Backwards.

“My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2017. As I started writing about her deterioration, I became interested in how language is affected by the disease,” said Simmers.

“In this series, I try to mimic some of the looping, nonsense words and holes in her speech.”

As the grand-prize winner, Simmers will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, and her poetry collection has been published on CBC Books. She will also receive a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

Simmers is the author of four books, which include the wilderness memoir Pivot Point and Hastings-sunrise, which was a finalist for the 2015 City of Vancouver Book Award.

Her most recent collection of poetry, If, When, links her living experiences in Squamish, B.C., with those of her great-grandparents, who lived in the nearby town of Britannia a century earlier.

From 2016 to 2017, Simmers was a writer in residence at Ranger Station Gallery in Harrison Springs, B.C. When her husband was offered a teaching position on the East Coast, they decided to move. Simmers has lived in Charlottetown for about five years.

"I’ve always wanted to win the CBC Poetry Prize but never thought it would happen. I know my mom would be proud, too,” said Simmers.

The four runners-up for the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize, who will each receive $1,000, Rachel Lachmansingh for From the Mouth, Brad Aaron Modlin for To the Astronaut Who Hopes Life on Another Planet Will Be More Bearable, Luka Poljak for Mouth Prayers and Kerry Ryan for Grief white.

CBC Books also announced Philippe Labarre as the winner of the French grand prize for Scènes de la vie poreuse.