Poetry Drama

The Economist isn't impressed with the news that Alice Oswald and John Kinsella have withdrawn their books from the £15,000 TS Eliot poetry prize to protest the award's sponsorship by a hedge fund:

If there is a specific grievance against a particular company, donor or backer, then refusing to take their money makes sense. But I haven’t heard any such complaint in the case of the TS Eliot award. There just seems to be a generalised dislike of the idea of money and art rubbing together. These are tough times and government arts funding is falling. The poets should watch out, or they may soon have only their own words to eat.

Griffin Prize

Griffin Prize finalists were announced yesterday. My feelings about this prize are really conflicted (I vent a little in this essay), though Jake's take seems spot on. That said, I'm happy to see John Steffler on the shortlist. We published his selected poems, Helix, in 2002.

Lampert Finalist

Good news. Susan Briscoe's The Crow's Vow has been shortlisted for the $ 1,000 2011 Gerald Lampert Award for Best First Book of Poetry. Delighted to see Jeff Latosik's Tiny, Frantic, Stronger on the same list. Though a big bronx cheer to the jury for overlooking Michael Lista's Bloom. Winners are announced June 11.

Oops, she did it again

News has reached us that Montreal poet Anita Lahey, author of the Trillium-nominated Out to Dry in Cape Breton (2006), has just walked away with the $600 first prize in the Antigonish Review's 2008 Great Blue Heron Poetry Contest for her poem "Man Tearing Down a Chimney."

Lahey won top honours for the same competition in 2004.

Windfall

I'm very happy to report that The Conseil des arts et des lettres has awarded David Solway a Bourse de carriere valued at $60,000. These bourses are awarded only once every two years and only two go out to writers.

This is the second time David been acknowledged in this public way by the Francophone community, the other occasion being the Grand Prix du Livre in 2004. He was the first Anglophone writer in the history of the prize to win it.

David's most recent Signal Editions collection is Reaching for Clear which was awarded the 2007 QWF A.M. Klein Prize for poetry