Lanark Highlands writer shortlisted for CBC Nonfiction Prize with story of cancer, connection and caregiving

A Lanark Highlands writer’s deeply personal account of cancer, caregiving, and life looking after a herd of llamas and alpacas has been shortlisted for the 2026 CBC Nonfiction Prize.

It was announced on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, that Jacky Sawatzky was one of five finalists selected from nearly 1,900 entries from across Canada for her nonfiction piece, Radiation Nights: Voice Memos to a Friend.

For Sawatzky, the shortlist recognition came as a complete shock. She recounted receiving the news while driving to the farm where she works for an evening feeding. When she called back, she realized it was CBC on the other line, who wanted to tell her she had been shortlisted for the 2026 CBC Nonfiction Prize.

While friends and fellow writers had suggested the piece had a chance of getting selected, Sawatzky said the news still came as “a total surprise,” telling Lanarkist “I wasn’t expecting it at all.”

For the burgeoning writer, being shortlisted was particularly meaningful because of the broader audience her story could reach. “Publishing through CBC felt like an avenue that could reach a much larger audience than a literary magazine,” she explained.

At the heart of Radiation Nights is Sawatzky’s own personal experience battling cancer and the role that caring for animals played throughout that difficult period.

Sawatzky has now lived in the Lanark region for six years, originally coming to the area to help care for llamas at Serendipity Farm. She said she quickly fell in love with the area and its rich sense of community.

Sawatzky told Lanarkist she spends an average of four or five hours a day caring for llamas and alpacas, doing everything from feeding and cleaning them to taking them on walks. While working on the farm, she has also been pursuing research for her PhD, which is focused on human – llama interactions and llama behaviour.

For Sawatzky, this daily routine of caring for animals continued to provide a sense of grounding and connection to life while she was undergoing cancer treatment in Toronto. That idea of care became one of the central threads running through her piece.

“That was for me the most important thing during the cancer journey, people caring and caregiving in a larger sense,” she told Lanarkist. “That’s where the llamas come in. I’m caring for the llamas when friends were caring for me, and so it becomes this story of how we relate to each other, how we relate and care for each other.”

The piece itself, built around the concept of sending voice memos to a friend while receiving chemotherapy, grew naturally from Sawatzky’s desire to get her thoughts out and tell the story to someone.

The idea for shaping the story’s format around voice memos came from a suggestion fr Sawatzky’s friend, who is a writer and retired creative-writing professor. Sawatzky said she began recording short pieces as though she were speaking directly to her friend, who would then transcribe them and send them back. Sensing the creative potential, her friend encouraged her to keep going.

“I have to imagine that I’m writing to someone,” Sawatzky explained. “I can’t write a story for the sake of a story, I have to tell a story to somebody.”

She shared that while she enjoyed writing when she was younger, it took years for her to find her voice. She considers herself a slow and sporadic writer, but said that once she begins, the writing flows.

The writer added that the original work for Radiation Nights is notably longer than the piece submitted for the Nonfiction Prize, and she plans to continue writing it. For Sawatzky, she considers the CBC recognition as another step in her writing process that took years to develop.

When asked for any words of wisdom for other aspiring writers struggling to find their voice, Sawatzky’s response was simple and straightforward.

“Start. Just start,” she urged. “And don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or writing a good story. Start
writing and finding your voice.”

The five CBC Nonfiction Prize finalists were selected from entries submitted across Canada. The grand prize winner is scheduled to be announced Sept. 22 and will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and a two-week residency at the Leighton Artist Studios at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

The other four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, with their work published on CBC Books.