Griffin Poetry Prize Shortlist Announced

This from the Toronto Star's entertainment reporter Vit Wagner:

"Don McKay, a two-time nominee for the Griffin Poetry Prize, was again named today to the Canadian shortlist for the lucrative literary award. McKay's "Strike/Slip" was among three nominees announced in Toronto today for the $50,000 prize.

Also nominated were Ken Babstock's "Airstream Land Yacht" and Priscila Uppal's "Ontological Necessities".

The four nominees for the international prize, also worth $50,000, are U.S. writers Rodney James ("Salvation Blues"), Frederick Seidel ("Ooga-Booga") and Charles Wright ("Scar Tissue"), and U.K. poet Paul Farley ("Tramp in Flames").

A record 483 books, including 18 translations, representing 15 countries were considered by jury members John Burnside, Chames Simic and Karen Solie for this year’s prizes. The seven nominees will participate in a program of readings June 5 at the MacMillan Theatre in Toronto, with the two winners to be announced the following day.

Writer David Young, one of the prize's six trustees, acknowledged that poetry isn't as central to our literary culture as it once was, but said it will always endure. "It's like the albino cockroach in the nuclear reactor," he said. "It can't be killed."

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Seeing as I actually am a Canadian poet, and therefore rather up on these things, the fact that Ken Babstock is the only one of these I've ever heard of (aside from Simic, who's not nominated, but a judge) is either dismaying (only one...?) or uplifting (look at the trove of obscure poets what's been uncovered). Personally I'm opting for the first one, but then, I haven't had my breakfast yet.

Er, go Ken Babstock, yay!
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