The Griffin Poetry Prize Announces the 2005 Canadian And
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THE GRIFFIN TRUST For Excellence In Poetry Trustees: Press Release Margaret Atwood Carolyn Forché THE GRIFFIN POETRY PRIZE ANNOUNCES THE 2005 Scott Griffin CANADIAN AND INTERNATIONAL SHORTLIST Robert Hass Griffin Poetry Prize Award increased to C$100,000 Michael Ondaatje Robin Robertson Two winning poets to accompany the Griffin Poetry Prize team to Ireland to appear at the Dublin Writers Festival David Young TORONTO, April 6th — The Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist for 2005 was announced today by Scott Griffin, and David Young, Trustees of The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry. The C$100,000 Griffin Poetry Prize (increased this year from C$80,000) is the most lucrative prize to accept books of poetry from any country in the world – exemplifying the international spirit of poetry. The prize is awarded annually for the two best books of poetry (including translations) published in English the previous year. A record-breaking 433 eligible books from 17 different countries, translated from 8 different languages, were submitted for 2005. The seven finalists – three Canadian and four International – will be invited to read in Toronto at the MacMillan Theatre on June 1st. The winners, who each receive C$50,000, will be announced on June 2nd at the fifth Griffin Poetry Prize awards event. The Canadian Shortlist Short Journey Upriver Toward Ōishida • Roo Borson McClelland and Stewart Ltd. Changing on the Fly • George Bowering Polestar/Raincoast Books Camber • Don McKay McClelland and Stewart Ltd. The International Shortlist On the Ground • Fanny Howe Graywolf Press Corpus • Michael Symmons Roberts Jonathan Cape A Green Light • Matthew Rohrer Verse Press Selected Poems 1963-2003 • Charles Simic Faber and Faber THE GRIFFIN TRUST For Excellence In Poetry The judges for 2005 are the distinguished poets Simon Armitage (United Kingdom), Erin Moure (Canada) and Tomaz Salamun (Slovenia). Moure was short listed for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2002 and is the editor of the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology, a selection of poems from the short listed books, published by House of Anansi Press Inc. Royalties from the Anthology are donated to UNESCO’s World Poetry Day. Following the Awards, the Canadian and International winners will accompany a Griffin team – including Carolyn Forché, Scott Griffin, Robin Robertson, David Young, Leslie Greentree, David Kirby and Gerald Stern – to Ireland to participate in readings and celebrations for the 2005 Dublin Writers Festival on June 16th and 17th. The trip to Dublin is part of the vision Scott Griffin sees for bringing the Griffin Poetry Prize and prize winners to an increasingly international audience. The Griffin Poetry Prize was launched in September, 2000 by Trustees Margaret Atwood, Scott Griffin, Robert Hass, Michael Ondaatje, Robin Robertson and David Young. Most recently, Carolyn Forché has joined the group of Trustees who each year selected the judges for the Griffin Poetry Prize. The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry was created to serve and encourage poetry written in English anywhere in the world. Eligible collections of poetry, including translations, must be submitted by publishers in the calendar year of their publication. Tickets for the Readings to be held on June 1st at the MacMillan Theatre are available at www.griffinpoetryprize.com/tickets or by calling 905 565 5993. - 30 - THE GRIFFIN TRUST For Excellence In Poetry NOTE: The publishers mentioned in our release are those who submitted the books. NOTE TO BOOKSELLERS: Griffin Poetry Prize Shortlist bookmarks, posters and stickers are supplied free of charge by The Griffin Trust. To view these items and access the order form, visit our Web site, at http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/order.php. Winner stickers will be available after June 2nd. Please direct other inquiries as follows: Press and Publicity: General Inquiries: Jane Wilson, Publicity Director Ruth Smith, Manager Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Links: Submitting Publishers’ Web sites: Graywolf Press – http://www.graywolfpress.org Jonathan Cape – http://www.randomhouse.co.uk Polestar/Raincoast Books – http://www.raincoast.com Faber and Faber – http://www.faber.co.uk Verse Press – http://www.versepress.org McClelland and Stewart Ltd. - http://www.mcclelland.com/ Marketing Collateral http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/order.php Downloadable photographs of 2005 short listed poets http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/presskit.php THE GRIFFIN TRUST For Excellence In Poetry THE 2005 GRIFFIN POETRY PRIZE SHORTLIST CITATIONS AND BIOGRAPHIES The Canadian Shortlist Book: Short Journey Upriver Toward Ōishida Poet: Roo Borson Publisher: McClelland and Stewart Ltd. Citation: “To lose “North”, in some idioms, is to lose all direction. In her journey, Borson finds North. This is the work of a poet writing at the height of her powers. It is a poetic journal of mortality, of the “why be born?” and “do you still love poetry?”, of entering middle age, and of journeying through landscape, seasons, plants, pasts, to find it again. The book is a small perfection in its construction, moving deftly through seasons and forms: poetic prose for a garden of persimmons, haiku rising out of prose sequences for the autumn record, and the book’s fulcrum, the “Water Colour” poems, not haiku but poems that bear haiku’s arrested feeling and succinct observation. As for Basho, Borson’s mentor and poetic ancestor, setting off toward North – lost, loss, losing – is to find the journey itself and one’s own corporeality, out of grief and into the light of words.” Biography: Born in California in 1952, Roo Borson has made her home in Canada since graduating with a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of British Columbia in 1977. Short Journey Upriver Toward Ōishida, also nominated recently for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and shortlisted for the Trillium Book Prize, is her tenth book of poems, which include Water memory (1996) and Night Walk: Selected Poems (1994), a finalist for the Governor General’s Award. In addition to her prize winning essays, Borson’s poetry has won many awards including the CBC Prize for Poetry in 1982 and 1989, and has been a finalist for the National Magazine Awards in 1990 and 1993, the Governor General’s Award in 1984 as well as 1994, and in collaboration with Kim Maltman and Andy Patton as PAIN NOT BREAD, won the Long Poem Prize in the Malahat Review in 1993. Among her publications are: In the Smokey Light of the Fields (1980), Intent, Or, the Weight of the World (1989), Landfall (1977), Rain (1980), A Sad Device (1981), The Transparence of November; Snow (1985) and The Whole Night Coming Home (1984). Borson has given readings across Canada, in the United States and in Australia, and has been published in a wide array of anthologies including The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse, the Norton Introduction to Poetry, the Norton Introduction to Literature and The Morningside Papers. She has served as the Writer in residence at both Concordia and the University of Western Ontario. Currently living in Toronto with poet and physicist Kim Maltman, along with Andy Patton and Maltman, Borson is a member of the Collaborative performance poetry ensemble PAIN NOT BREAD. The 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize Shortlist Citations and Biographies 1 THE GRIFFIN TRUST For Excellence In Poetry Book: Changing on the Fly Poet: George Bowering Publisher: Polestar/Raincoast Books Citation: “In George Bowering’s flight changes, lyric takes to the air – with spareness, resiliency and irrepressible humour. This collection from 40 years of playful seriousness extends lyric form in a marvellous variety of ways, condensing a remarkable agility, an exuberance in the singular voice and in feelings’ construct and presentation. It is irreverent, yet leaves us in the hush of reverence. Bowering’s voice is instantly recognisable throughout, in all its variants, its pulling of high into “low” culture, its borrowings from older poetries we all know. Bowering is the poet of delight in earthly matters, of bemusement at the self. His lyrics turn out the streetlights (who needs them!) and light up the stars. And his lines try to understand what it is to exist, in the face of fears we all have, “fears that I may cease to be.” Biography: In recognition of his extraordinary accomplishments, George Bowering was named Canada’s First Poet Laureate in 2000. The much lauded Officer of the Order of Canada has won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 1969, the Governor General’s Award for Fiction in 1980, the Nichol Chapbook Award for Poetry in both 1991 and 1992, the Canadian Author’s Association Award for Poetry in 1993 and was awarded an Honorary Degree (D. Litt.) from the University of British Columbia in 1994. A list of his collections of poems include: Sticks and Stones (1963), Points on the Grid (1963), The Man in Yellow Boots (1964), The Silver Wire (1966), Rocky Mountain Foot (1969), The Gangs of Kosmos (1969), Touch: Selected Poems (1960- 1969), In the Flesh (1974), The Catch (1976), Poem and Other Baseballs (1976), The Concrete Island (1977), Another Mouth (1979), Particular Accidents (1981), West Window (1982), Smoking Mirror (1982), Seventy-One Poems for People (1985), Delayed Mercy and Other Poems (1986), Sticks and Stones (1989), Urban Snow (1992), George Bowering Selected Poems 1961-1992 (1993), Blonds on Bikes (1997), Poems et Autre Baseballs – Collaboration (1999). Born in Penticton British Columbia in 1935, George Bowering has had a multi-faceted career as novelist, editor, radio personality, professor and poet. After serving as an aerial photographer in the RCAF, he attended the University of British Columbia where he earned a BA in History and an MA in English, and took part in establishing the post modernist, avant-garde movement in BC by co- founding and co-editing TISH. Bowering has taught at the University of Calgary, the University of Western Ontario and now teaches at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.