Rising literary talent Canisia Lubrin is among the Canadian finalists for the $65,000 Griffin Poetry Prize.
The Griffin Trust announced the three homegrown wordsmiths and four international poets on this year’s short list on Wednesday.
Lubrin, who recently received the US$165,000 Windham-Campbell Prize, is nominated for “The Dyzgraphxst” (pronounced diss-graff-ist), published by McClelland and Stewart.
Also among the Canadian contenders are Joseph Dandurand of Kwantlen First Nation for his Vancouver-set collection “The East Side of It All” and Yusuf Saadi for “Pluviophile,” both of which are published by Nightwood Editions.
The international short list includes American poet and Victoria Chang for “Obit,” Belarusian poet Valzhyna Mort for “Music for the Dead and Resurrected” and Indian-American writer Srikanth Reddy for “Underworld Lit.”
Tracy K. Smith and Changtai Bi share a nomination with poet Yi Lei for their translation of her Chinese work “My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree.”
The Griffin will award two winners — one international and one Canadian — $65,000 apiece at an online ceremony on June 23.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2021.
The Canadian Press
