P.E.I. writer Bren Simmers wins 2022 CBC Poetry Prize for work inspired by how Alzheimer's affects language

Bren Simmershas won the2022CBC PoetryPrizefor her poetry collectionSpell World Backwards.

She will receive$6,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand will also attend a writing residency at theBanff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

Simmers' poems werepublished onCBC Books.You can readSpell World Backwardshere.

Simmers is the author of four books, including the wilderness memoirPivot PointandHastings-Sunrise,which was a finalist for the Vancouver Book Award. Her most recent collection of poetry isIf, When.Shewas previously longlisted for the CBCPoetry Prize in2013 forI Blame MASH For My Addiction To MLSand in2012 forScience Lessons.

LISTEN|Bren Simmers' interview on On The Coastwith Gloria Macarenko

CBC Books10:58CBC Poetry Prize winner Bren Simmers on As It Happens

The 2022 CBC Poetry Prize winner readers her winning collection Spell World Backwards and discusses her writing.

Spell World Backwardswas inspired by Simmers'mother's experience with Alzheimer's, she told CBC Books.

"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," she said.

LISTEN|Bren Simmers' interview on As It Happens:

"In this series, I try to mimic some of the looping, nonsense wordsand holes in her speech. As she progresses into late-stage Alzheimer's, it has become increasingly difficult to communicate with her, outside of touch. She still loves to dance though!"

• How Bren Simmers wrote the poems that won the 2022 CBC PoetryPrize

"Spell World Backwards is a moving sequence of poems that unflinchingly addresses the complexities of dementia, kinship, and grief, and reaches the core of our common humanity. Told in a set of incomplete block-shaped stanzas with deliberate textual omissions, the sequence sets into motion a narrative that draws upon themes of mother and child, love and separation, memory and forgetting," the jury said in a statement.

The 2022CBC Poetry Prizejurors wereArmand Garnet Ruffo, Megan Gail Coles and Hoa Nguyen.

The jury selected the winner and theshortlistfrom alonglist of 26 writersthat was compiled bya team of writersfrom across Canada.

LISTEN | Bren Simmers on Spell World Backwards:

Simmers'winning poetry collectionwas selected from over2,200 entries.

"I am incredulous and so grateful! I've always wanted to win the CBC Poetry Prize, but never thought it would happen. I know my mom would be proud too. She used to carry my poems in her purse and show them to people in the grocery store,"Simmers told CBC Books.

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Theother four finalists are Rachel Lachmansingh of Toronto forFrom the Mouth, Brad Aaron Modlin of Guelph, Ont.,forTo the Astronaut Who Hopes Life on Another Planet Will Be More Bearable, Luka Poljak of Vancouver, forMouth Prayersand Kerry Ryan of Winnipeg, forGrief white. They will each receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts.

LISTEN | Bren Simmers on winning the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize:

Philippe Labarre won thePrix de posieRadio-Canada2022forScnes de la vie poreuse.

The 2021winner was Vancouver poet LiseGastonfor her poemJames. Other past CBC Literary Prize winners includeAlison Pick,David Bergen,Michael OndaatjeandCarol Shields.

TheCBC Literary Prizeshave been recognizing Canadian writers since 1979.Bren Simmers is the first everCBC Literary Prizes grand prize winner from Prince Edward Island.

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For Canadians interested in otherCBC Literary Prizes, the 2023CBC Nonfiction Prizewill open in January and the 2023CBC Poetry Prizewill open in April.