One Route, Over and Over by Nicole Boyce

Nicole Boyce has made the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for One Route, Over and Over.

• 28 writers make the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist

The winner of the 2021CBC Nonfiction Prizewill receive $6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, have their work published onCBC Booksand have the opportunity to attend a two-week writing residency at theBanff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand have their work published onCBC Books.

The shortlist will be announced on Sept.22and the winner will be announced on Sept.29.

If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes,the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize is open for submissions until Oct. 31.

• Calling all writers! The 2022 CBC Short Story Prize is now open for submissions

About Nicole Boyce

Nicole Boyce writes nonfiction, fiction and humour. Her work has been published in publications such as The Awl, Event, Joyland, McSweeney's Internet Tendency and Prairie Fire. She was the winner of the 2016 Prairie Fire Nonfiction Contest and has been shortlistedfor Event's Nonfiction Contest and TNQ's Peter Hinchcliffe Fiction Award. She received her MFA from University of British Columbia'screative writing program, where she was the prose editor of PRISM international. Nicole lives with her family in Calgary. She is currently working on a rom-com novel.

Entry in five-ish words

"New parents driving and surviving."

The story's source of inspiration

"After the birth of our lovely but somewhat sleepless son, my husband and I began spending long hours in our car, driving the baby to sleep at bedtime. It was an intense, emotional and peculiar time. As someone who didn't drive regularly until her 30s, I never imagined I would spend that much time in a car. I wanted to capture this unusual time in our family's life and the deep bonds we developed while navigating our sleep struggles."

First lines

It's mid-June, and we're driving the baby through a flash flood. When we bought this car a seven-year-old Jetta we did not consider its water-treading potential. We did not consider how loudly the engine might humor how much the car might vibrate because of its low clearance, though both these factors end up working in our favour. The Jetta gets good mileage, too, so gas station stops are few and far between.

Still, if we'd known how many hours we'd spend in our car, driving our first-born child to sleep, we would have bought something exceptional.

Still, if we'd known how many hours we'd spend in our car, driving our first-born child to sleep, we would have bought something exceptional. Something as rugged and grumbly as modern safety standards would allow: a baby-oscillating machine. We would have installed a camp toilet in the back and a novelty coffee maker in the front. We would have prepared ourselves.

About the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize

The winner of the 2021 CBC Nonfiction 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 Short Story Prize is currently open for submissions until Oct. 31, 2021. The 2022 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January and the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April.