first person essay globe and mail

First Person

Season 1 - 6x6' | World Premiere In English with English & French subtitles Ep. 1 & 4 (Ep. 1, 2 & 4 on CANNESERIES LIVE)

First Person is an anthology series adapted from the Globe and Mail column, published daily for the past thirty years. It consists of essays written by readers who have something personal to share in a poignant, funny, enlightening way. Their shared experiences, unique perspectives, and original voices are brought to the screen by young, talented filmmakers who allow them to reach new audiences.

Credits: © Carousel Pictures

Original Title First Person

Written by   Renuka Jeyapalan, Jessie Gabe, Joyce Wong

Directed by    Renuka Jeyapalan, Joyce Wong, Jessie Gabe

Photography    Daniel Grant

Editing   Marianna Khoury

Music Grayson Matthews

Cast Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll, Rayisa Kondracki, Louise Pitre, Joe Matheson, Alexandra Ordolis

Production    Carousel Pictures, Sugar Shack Productions

Sales iThentic

Broadcast Radio-Canada – CBC (Canada)

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First Person

First person is a digital anthology series. The series is adapted from the 'First Person' column (formerly Facts and Arguments) in the Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail. The column has ... Read all First person is a digital anthology series. The series is adapted from the 'First Person' column (formerly Facts and Arguments) in the Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail. The column has been published daily for the past twenty-twenty-five years and consists of personal essays... Read all First person is a digital anthology series. The series is adapted from the 'First Person' column (formerly Facts and Arguments) in the Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail. The column has been published daily for the past twenty-twenty-five years and consists of personal essays written by every day Canadians who have something to express. The essays are often poigna... Read all

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Episodes 10

Top cast 33.

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Globe and Mail: First Person

CBC First Person FAQ

Want to share your personal story with cbc news here's how.

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What are first person columns.

First Person columns are personal stories and experiences of Canadians, in their own words. This is intended to showcase a more intimate storytelling perspective, and allow people from across the country to share what they have lived through. 

A good piece will spur conversation. It could be a slice of life or a transformative moment that changed your life. Perhaps your personal story will inform how the reader thinks about the world. 

Here are some examples of First Person columns:

The dingy apartment of my 20s left an indelible mark on me

When I married a widower, I made space for his late wife's legacy

Photography was my dad's way of saying 'I love you' — I just didn't know it before he died

I love my electric car but I didn't realize my life would revolve around charging it

Broke, hungry and just 20, I was too embarrassed to ask for help when I moved to Canada

What are you looking for?

A good First Person should focus on one thing and explore it in-depth, rather than giving us a broad overview of a subject.

We are looking particularly for personal stories that reflect contemporary Canada, encompassing experiences from outside major urban centres, from people with disabilities, from Black, Indigenous and other people of colour, and from diverse economic-social perspectives.

First-time contributors are always welcome and can often have new insight on a topic. You do not have to be a professional writer, but you should have an interesting personal narrative with details that can sustain 600 to 700 words. Pitches must be original work that has not been published elsewhere.

How can I send in a submission? 

If you're interested in writing a First Person column for CBC News, you can send a pitch summarizing your submission to [email protected] for our editors to review. 

An editor will contact you if CBC News wants to pursue commissioning your column. Unfortunately, we cannot respond individually to every pitch due to the volume of submissions.

If your pitch is accepted, you will be paid for your published column. 

What's the best way to frame a pitch? 

Before sending your pitch, read a few of our previously published First Person columns . This will give you a sense of what makes a good First Person column and also what we have covered in the past. 

When you send a pitch, make sure it's a topic we haven't covered or it explores a different angle of that issue.

Start by introducing yourself in a few lines and where you live. Then, explain your idea for a First Person column in approximately 150 words and why you think it would resonate with a CBC audience. In your pitch, reflect on what you learned from the experience or how it changed your perspective. If you have relevant photos, audio or video that would augment your column, include those details too. 

What if I'm not a professional writer? 

First-time contributors are always welcome and can often bring new insight. If your pitch is accepted, you'll work with an editor to finesse your writing. The editing process typically includes guidance on improving the flow, structure, or clarity of the column, as well as revisions to fix typos, grammar, or other language and style rules. 

The time commitment can vary, but in general, a column will require at least two drafts, and discussions between the writer and editor may span several days. 

What is the difference between First Person, analysis and opinion?

A First Person column relies on specific experience lived by the contributor. It should be a compelling narrative that readers may relate to because they, too, have experienced something similar or because they are learning something new through a perspective on a situation. 

An Opinion column relies on expertise held by the contributor that helps support an argument with a potential impact on society. These columns showcase a wide range of commentary to give the audience access to competing ideas and perspectives which complement CBC News coverage, and provide additional insight. 

Analysis pieces are largely written by CBC News journalists, who bring their knowledge and expertise to provide additional context. Occasionally, we publish analysis by reporters from our news wire agency partners or freelance journalists.

All of this content — whether it is Opinion, First Person or Analysis — must adhere to CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices . All columns are fact-checked by CBC staff.

What was Point of View? 

Point of View was the label previously applied to First Person columns. This was changed in February 2021 to set a clear distinction with Opinion columns.

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‘First Person’ sees Globe and Mail essays translated to screen

Carousel Pictures and Sugar Shack Productions are producing the six-part project, which began shooting last week.

With the ongoing success of the New York Times ‘ “ Modern Love ” IP, two Canadian prodcos are hoping to uncover a similar gem with a new six-film anthology series based on the Globe and Mail ‘s First Person essays.

Based on the long-running personal essay section (previously called Facts & Arguments), the project will see Renuka Jeyapalan, Joyce Wong and Jessie Gabe turn six stories into short films: Code Red , Life Support , My Father’s Dignity , Masculinity , My Toronto Home and My Wife’s Affair Is Kind of a Funny Story . Toronto-based production companies Carousel Pictures and Sugar Shack Productions are producing the project, which began shooting last week in Toronto and is scheduled to wrap later this week.

Some of the original stories have been read more than 100,000 times, according to a press release.

“Facts and Arguments (now First Person) is a venerable Canadian literary series which one might expect the adaptation of these articles to be a traditional and standard process,” said Carousel Pictures’ founder and president Tyler Levine. “Instead, we’ve decided to turn this collection of beloved stories into an incubator of Canada’s most promising writer and director talent and challenge each of our three directors to do things behind the camera and in the edit that they’ve always dreamed of.”

The  Globe ‘s research department helped sift through 10,000 stories for the series, with each of the three directors picking their favourite stories. Each author was consulted prior to Jeyapalan, Wong and Gabe penning the scripts.

Workin’ Moms director Jeyapalan will direct three of the six films. She wrote Code Red , Life Support and My Father’s Dignity . Code Red stars Alexandra Ordolis, Ian Ho and Christopher Jacot; Life Support features Raven Dauda and Jayne Eastwood; and finally, Kate Drummond stars in My Father’s Dignity .

Meanwhile, Wong, whose directing credits include Wexford Plaza and True Dating Stories , adapted Masculinity starring Chris Robinson and My Toronto Home , which stars actors Louise Pitre and Joe Matheson. In addition, Mr. D ‘s Jessie Gabe wrote and will direct My Wife’s Affair , starring Rayisa Kondracki and Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll.

Producers on the project include Carousel’s Levine and Sugar Shack’s Patrice Theroux. Jeyapalan serves as an exec producer. Coproducers on First Person also include Bruno Lyra and Carousel’s Katelyn Cursio and Kevin Prozes.

Following completion, the  First Person  team plans to submit the series to film festivals. iThentic is handling global distribution of the project on digital platforms.

First Person received funding from the  Independent Production Fund and tax credits.

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The Globe and Mail Publishes Grade 11 Student's English Essay

By Kyle Slavin - February 11, 2022

Senior School

We talked to her as our memories watched from the walls – and they seemed less cruel then. They were tributes to a life of happiness, full of love and achievements and adventure. I choked out “I love you” through tears as I patted her hand and walked out the door.

The beautiful words, written by Grade 11 student Jasmine Hobbs about her grandma’s dementia, were initially only to be read by her English teacher. But this past week her essay was published by The Globe and Mail newspaper, reaching readers across Canada and beyond.

“It’s really nice that a lot of people got to read it because with a lot of the things I write, I write them hoping people will read them, even though I know nobody ever will,” Jasmine says. “When I wrote this, I thought, ‘I'm going to write this to be interesting to other people,’ so it was really nice when a lot of other people did read it, and it felt meaningful to them.”

Jasmine wrote a first draft of her essay, “ I learned how to see my grandma, not her dementia ,” soon after her grandma died about two years ago. This year, she revisited the piece when her Literary Studies 11 teacher, Mr. Brad Edgington, assigned a personal essay.

“Mr. Edgington said it should be something that has happened to us that has maybe taught us a lesson,” she says. “I decided to bring it up again because I thought I could expand upon it and make it better. I keep a journal so I went through my old entries and took out stories to use in the essay.”

Brad says he was immediately impressed by Jasmine’s writing when she submitted the piece.

“Stylistically it was mature to me. I really appreciate a concise, straightforward style and I think that works quite well in the essay,” he says. “She did a really fine job of having that concise style but also sprinkling stylistic flourishes without overdoing it.”

For the last few years, Brad has encouraged students to submit their writing to The Globe and Mail for consideration in their First Person section, which is for personal essays. This year, he tapped a couple of students on the shoulder, to really encourage them to do so – and Jasmine was one of them.

She emailed her essay to The Globe and Mail but didn’t expect to hear back. Sure enough, last month she did.

“I was so excited. I thought it was really cool,” she says.

“I learned how to see my grandma, not her dementia” was published in the Saturday, February 5 edition of the newspaper. Since then, Jasmine has been flooded with complimentary messages from classmates, teachers and strangers (via the comments section on the essay online).

“I actually got an email from the editor and she said I had fan mail. Someone had emailed her from California who said they read it and said, ‘Wow, this was really touching. I’m going through this with my mother right now, and it made me feel better,’” Jasmine says. “It's sad that dementia is such a shared experience but I’m glad that what I wrote has helped people go through their experience.”

Kyle Slavin

Kyle Slavin was the school's storyteller. Through words, photos and videos, he shared with the community all the amazing things that happen at the school.

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