Griffin Poetry Prize to honour two writers with $65,000 apiece in Toronto

TORONTO – Some of the world’s top wordsmiths will gather in Toronto tonight for the Griffin Poetry Prize gala.

The annual event awards two $65,000 prizes — one to a Canadian poet and another to an international writer.

Canadian finalists include “Red Doc>” by Toronto-born Anne Carson, who was the Canadian winner of the inaugural Griffin in 2001.

Toronto’s Anne Michaels, a novelist and poet who’s won several prestigious literary prizes, is in the running for “Correspondences.”

Halifax-based writer Sue Goyette rounds out the Canadian finalists with “Ocean.”

The international short list includes “Pilgrim’s Flower” by England native Rachael Boast and “Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire” by California-based Brenda Hillman.

The other international finalists are “Silverchest” by Carl Phillips of Missouri and “Colonies,” written by Poland’s Tomasz Rozycki and translated from Polish by Mira Rosenthal.

Toronto businessman Scott Griffin created the honour along with trustees including Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje.

The non-winning finalists will each get $10,000.

Judges Robert Bringhurst of Canada, C.D. Wright of the U.S. and Jo Shapcott of the U.K. chose this year’s finalists from 539 books submitted from 40 countries.

Last year’s winners were “What’s the Score?” by Toronto’s David W. McFadden and “Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems” by Ramallah-based Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan and translated from Arabic by Fady Joudah of Houston.