Griffin Poetry Prize Winners Announced
From The Griffin Poetry Prize website:
David Harsent’s Night and Ken Babstock’s Methodist Hatchet are the International and Canadian winners of the 2012 annual Griffin Poetry Prize. They each received C$65,000 in prize money.
The Griffin Poetry Prize was founded in 2000 to serve and encourage excellence in poetry. The prize is for first edition books of poetry written in, or translated into, English and submitted from anywhere in the world.
The awards ceremony, attended by some 400 invited guests, was held in the Fermenting Cellar at the Stone Distillery and hosted by Scott Griffin, founder of the prize, and Trustees Margaret Atwood, Robert Hass, Michael Ondaatje, Robin Robertson and David Young.
The Judges for the 2012 Griffin Poetry Prize are Heather McHugh (USA), David O’Meara (Canada) and Fiona Sampson (UK). These distinguished writers and poets each read 481 books of poetry, received from 37 countries around the globe, including 19 translations. The Judges are selected annually by the Trustees of The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry.
On the previous evening, the shortlisted poets read excerpts from their books at a sold-out event for more than 1,000 people in downtown Toronto at The Royal Conservatory, TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning, Koerner Hall.
More details here.
In related news, Seamus Heaney won the Griffin's Lifetime Recognition Award. Details on that can be found here.