Today the longlist for the CBC literary awards was announced. Not too much to comment on because both author and judge are still both nameless. Past winners have included Leon Rooke, Michael Winter, John Barton, Jan Conn, Rob Winger (whose manuscript became a part of the GG-nominated Muybridge’s Horse) and Asa Boxer.

As far as I know, CBC runs the only contest that’s so thoroughly committed to fairness that it won’t reveal who's involved at this stage. They'll give out the authors of the longlist (and the judges) eventually, but wouldn’t it have been nice of them to reveal earlier? Wouldn't everyone get a little more publicity out of it that way?

Okay, I admit to Facebooking Ottawa poet Sandra Ridley to ask if “Half-life” was hers, since she’s been working on a suite of poems about Las Vagas, waitressing and nuclear tests. She swears it’s not.

As a list of anonymous titles, it’s kind of haunting in a way. Mysterious. I don’t know.