# Griffin Poetry Prize

The Griffin Poetry Prize is a Canadian poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin.
Before 2022, two separate awards went to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language. In 2022, the two awards were consolidated into a single international prize of CAD$130,000. Shortlisted poets are awarded CAD$10,000, and a Lifetime Recognition Award comes with an award of CAD$25,000.
Concurrently with the merger, the Griffin Poetry Prize also introduced a juried Canadian First Book Prize to honor the year's best debut book by a Canadian poet.

## History

In April 2000, Scott Griffin started the Griffin Trust to raise public awareness of the crucial role poetry plays in society's cultural life. Griffin served as its chairman, with board of trustees Margaret Atwood, Robert Hass, Michael Ondaatje, Robin Robertson, and David Young. In June 2004, Carolyn Forché joined the board. New trustees have been named over the years: in 2014, Karen Solie, Colm Tóibín, and Mark Doty; in 2016, Jo Shapcott and Marek Kazmierski; in 2018, Ian Williams; and in 2020, Sarah Howe. Margaret Atwood, Robert Hass, Michael Ondaatje, Robin Robertson, Jo Shapcott and Colm Tóibín have assumed the role of trustees emeriti.
The Trust created the Griffin Poetry Prize with the aim of helping to introduce contemporary collections of poetry to the public's imagination. Eligible collections of poetry must have been published between January 1 and December 31 of the prior year. Submissions must come from publishers only. Originally, the award was two annual prizes of CAD$40,000 each for collections of poetry published in English during the preceding year. One prize was to go to a living Canadian poet, the other to a living poet from any country, which could include Canada as well.
Among the trustees’ responsibilities is to select each year’s judges, who select a shortlist announced in April, National Poetry Month. The shortlisted poets then gather for an evening of public readings in May or June; the following evening, the winners are announced and all the poets feted.
In 2010, the total amount of the annual prizes was doubled from CAD$100,000 to CAD$200,000 in recognition of the prize’s tenth anniversary. The increased amount of CAD$200,000 was awarded as follows: CAD$10,000 to each of seven shortlisted poets—four international and three Canadian—for their participation in the shortlist readings. The two winners, announced the next evening at the Griffin Poetry Prize Awards, were given CAD$65,000 each, for a total of CAD$75,000 that included the CAD$10,000 awarded the previous evening.
Selections from the shortlisted works are gathered annually in The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology, typically edited by one of that year's judges. In 2019, House of Anansi Press partnered with the National Network for Equitable Library Services (NNELS) to offer the anthology in print and digital Braille editions.
The Griffin Trust has championed other initiatives. In November 2010, Scott Griffin announced Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie, a bilingual recitation contest for high school students across Canada. Other projects have included funding a statue in tribute to poet Al Purdy, participation in international poetry festivals, and donations of poetry books to organizations such as the Correctional Service of Canada, the Scottish Poetry Library, a rebuilt Slave Lake Public Library (which was destroyed in a wildfire in 2011), and other libraries, schools, and colleges.
In 2022, Griffin Poetry Prize officials announced that the Canadian and international awards would be consolidated into a single award of CAD$130,000. Founder Scott Griffin said he originally believed that Canadian poets needed a separate category, but "now that a lot of Canadians have been recognized in the poetry world, we felt it was time they had to compete on the international stage with everybody else". The trust also announced a new prize: CAD$10,000 for a debut work of Canadian poetry. Critics from within Canadian poetry expressed concern about loss of opportunities "given the role the award played in securing grants and jobs". For instance, Alicia Elliot criticized the timing of the change, considering it happened "in the midst of a rather remarkable run for Black poets, Indigenous poets and poets of colour nominated for the Canadian portion" of the prize, and suggested the change implied that Canadian literature "is only relevant and worthwhile if it is being praised internationally."
In April 2023, Scott Griffin gave an endowment to the Writers' Trust of Canada to expand the prize package for what is now the Latner Griffin Writers' Trust Poetry Prize.

## Honorees and judges
### 2000s

Griffin Poetry Prize winners, finalists, and judges, 2001-2009 :
| Year | Category | Poet | Title | Result |
| 2001 | Canada | Anne Carson | Men in the Off Hours | Winner |
| 2001 | Canada | Robert Bringhurst | Nine Visits to the Mythworld | Finalist |
| 2001 | Canada | Don McKay | Another Gravity | Finalist |
| 2001 | International | Nikolai B. Popov and Heather McHugh (trans.) | Glottal Stop: 101 Poems by Paul Celan | Winner |
| 2001 | International | Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld (trans.) | Open Closed Open by Yehuda Amichai | Finalist |
| 2001 | International | Fanny Howe | Selected Poems | Finalist |
| 2001 | International | Les Murray | Learning Human | Finalist |
| 2002 | Canada | Christian Bök | Eunoia | Winner |
| 2002 | Canada | Erín Moure | Sheep's Vigil by a Fervent Person | Finalist |
| 2002 | Canada | Karen Solie | Short Haul Engine | Finalist |
| 2002 | International | Alice Notley | Disobedience | Winner |
| 2002 | International | Victor Hernández Cruz | Maraca | Finalist |
| 2002 | International | Christopher Logue | Homer: War Music | Finalist |
| 2002 | International | Les Murray | Conscious and Verbal | Finalist |
| 2003 | Canada | Margaret Avison | Concrete and Wild Carrot | Winner |
| 2003 | Canada | Dionne Brand | thirsty | Finalist |
| 2003 | Canada | P. K. Page | Planet Earth: Poems Selected and New | Finalist |
| 2003 | International | Paul Muldoon | Moy Sand and Gravel | Winner |
| 2003 | International | Kathleen Jamie | Mr And Mrs Scotland are Dead: Poems 1980–1994 | Finalist |
| 2003 | International | Gerald Stern | American Sonnets: poems | Finalist |
| 2003 | International | C. D. Wright | Steal Away: selected and new poems | Finalist |
| 2004 | Canada | Anne Simpson | Loop | Winner |
| 2004 | Canada | Di Brandt | Now You Care | Finalist |
| 2004 | Canada | Leslie Greentree | go-go dancing for Elvis | Finalist |
| 2004 | International | August Kleinzahler | The Strange Hours Travelers Keep | Winner |
| 2004 | International | Suji Kwock Kim | Notes From the Divided Country | Finalist |
| 2004 | International | David Kirby | The Ha-Ha | Finalist |
| 2004 | International | Louis Simpson | The Owner of the House | Finalist |
| 2005 | Canada | Roo Borson | Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida | Winner |
| 2005 | Canada | George Bowering | Changing on the Fly | Finalist |
| 2005 | Canada | Don McKay | Camber | Finalist |
| 2005 | International | Charles Simic | Selected Poems: 1963–2003 | Winner |
| 2005 | International | Fanny Howe | On the Ground | Finalist |
| 2005 | International | Michael Symmons Roberts | Corpus | Finalist |
| 2005 | International | Matthew Rohrer | A Green Light | Finalist |
| 2006 | Canada | Sylvia Legris | Nerve Squall | Winner |
| 2006 | Canada | Phil Hall | An Oak Hunch | Finalist |
| 2006 | Canada | Erín Moure | Little theatres | Finalist |
| 2006 | International | Kamau Brathwaite | Born to Slow Horses | Winner |
| 2006 | International | Michael Hofmann (trans.) | Ashes for Breakfast: Selected Poems fby Durs Grünbein | Finalist |
| 2006 | International | Michael Palmer | Company of Moths | Finalist |
| 2006 | International | Elizabeth Winslow (trans.) | The War Works Hard by Dunya Mikhail | Finalist |
| 2006 | Lifetime Recognition | Robin Blaser | | Winner |
| 2007 | Canada | Don McKay | Strike/Slip | Winner |
| 2007 | Canada | Ken Babstock | Airstream Land Yacht | Finalist |
| 2007 | Canada | Priscila Uppal | Ontological Necessities | Finalist |
| 2007 | International | Charles Wright | Scar Tissue | Winner |
| 2007 | International | Paul Farley | Tramp in Flames | Finalist |
| 2007 | International | Rodney Jones | Salvation Blues | Finalist |
| 2007 | International | Frederick Seidel | Ooga-Booga | Finalist |
| 2008 | Canada | Robin Blaser | The Holy Forest: Collected Poems of Robin Blaser | Winner |
| 2008 | Canada | Robert Majzels and Erín Moure (trans.) | Notebook of Roses and Civilization by Nicole Brossard | Finalist |
| 2008 | Canada | David McFadden | Why Are You So Sad? Selected Poems of David W. McFadden | Finalist |
| 2008 | International | John Ashbery | Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems | Winner |
| 2008 | International | Elaine Equi | Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems | Finalist |
| 2008 | International | Clayton Eshleman (trans.) | The Complete Poetry: A Bilingual Edition by Cesar Vallejo | Finalist |
| 2008 | International | David Harsent | Selected Poems 1969–2005 | Finalist |
| 2008 | Lifetime Recognition | Ko Un | | Winner |
| 2009 | Canada | A. F. Moritz | The Sentinel | Winner |
| 2009 | Canada | Kevin Connolly | Revolver | Finalist |
| 2009 | Canada | Jeramy Dodds | Crabwise to the Hounds | Finalist |
| 2009 | International | C.D. Wright | Rising, Falling, Hovering | Winner |
| 2009 | International | Mick Imlah | The Lost Leader | Finalist |
| 2009 | International | Derek Mahon | Life on Earth | Finalist |
| 2009 | International | Dean Young | Primitive Mentor | Finalist |
| 2009 | Lifetime Recognition | Hans Magnus Enzensberger | | Winner |

### 2010s

Griffin Poetry Prize winners, finalists, and judges, 2010-2019 :
| Year | Category | Poet | Title | Result |
| 2010 | Canada | Karen Solie | Pigeon | Winner |
| 2010 | Canada | Kate Hall | The Certainty Dream | Finalist |
| 2010 | Canada | P. K. Page | Coal and Roses | Finalist |
| 2010 | International | Eilean Ni Chuilleanain | The Sun-fish | Winner |
| 2010 | International | John Glenday | Grain | Finalist |
| 2010 | International | Louise Glück | A Village Life | Finalist |
| 2010 | International | Susan Wicks (trans.) | Cold Spring in Winter by Valérie Rouzeau | Finalist |
| 2010 | Lifetime Recognition | Adrienne Rich | | Winner |
| 2011 | Canada | Dionne Brand | Ossuaries | Winner |
| 2011 | Canada | Suzanne Buffam | The Irrationalist | Finalist |
| 2011 | Canada | John Steffler | Lookout | Finalist |
| 2011 | International | Gjertrud Schnackenberg | Heavenly Questions | Winner |
| 2011 | International | Seamus Heaney | Human Chain | Finalist |
| 2011 | International | Khaled Mattawa (trans.) | Adonis: Selected Poems by Adunis | Finalist |
| 2011 | International | Philip Mosley (trans.) | The Book of the Snow from the French by Francois Jacqmin | Finalist |
| 2011 | Lifetime Recognition | Yves Bonnefoy | | Winner |
| 2012 | Canada | Ken Babstock | Methodist Hatchet | Winner |
| 2012 | Canada | Phil Hall | Killdeer | Finalist |
| 2012 | Canada | Jan Zwicky | Forge | Finalist |
| 2012 | International | David Harsent | Night | Winner |
| 2012 | International | Yusef Komunyakaa | The Chameleon Couch | Finalist |
| 2012 | International | Sean O'Brien | November | Finalist |
| 2012 | International | Joanna Trzeciak (trans.) | Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems of Tadeusz Rózewicz | Finalist |
| 2012 | Lifetime Recognition | Seamus Heaney | | Winner |
| 2013 | Canada | David McFadden | What's the Score? | Winner |
| 2013 | Canada | James Pollock | Sailing to Babylon | Finalist |
| 2013 | Canada | Ian Williams | Personals | Finalist |
| 2013 | International | Fady Joudah (trans.) | The Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems by Ghassan Zaqtan | Winner |
| 2013 | International | Jennifer Maiden | Liquid Nitrogen | Finalist |
| 2013 | International | Alan Shapiro | Night of the Republic | Finalist |
| 2013 | International | Brenda Shaughnessy | Our Andromeda | Finalist |
| 2014 | Canada | Anne Carson | Red Doc> | Winner |
| 2014 | Canada | Susan Goyette | Ocean | Finalist |
| 2014 | Canada | Anne Michaels | Correspondences | Finalist |
| 2014 | International | Brenda Hillman | Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire | Winner |
| 2014 | International | Rachael Boast | Pilgrim's Flower | Finalist |
| 2014 | International | Carl Phillips | Silverchest | Finalist |
| 2014 | International | Mira Rosenthal (trans.) | Colonies by Tomasz Różycki | Finalist |
| 2014 | Lifetime Recognition | Adelia Prado | | Winner |
| 2015 | Canada | Jane Munro | Blue Sonoma | Winner |
| 2015 | Canada | Shane Book | Congotronic | Finalist |
| 2015 | Canada | Russell Thornton | The Hundred Lives | Finalist |
| 2015 | International | Michael Longley | The Stairwell | Winner |
| 2015 | International | Eleanor Goodman (trans.) | Something Crosses My Mind by Wang Xiaoni | Finalist |
| 2015 | International | Marek Kazmierski (trans.) | Finite Formulae & Theories of Chance by Wioletta Greg | Finalist |
| 2015 | International | Spencer Reece | The Road to Emmaus | Finalist |
| 2015 | Lifetime Recognition | Derek Walcott | | Winner |
| 2016 | Canada | Liz Howard | Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent | Winner |
| 2016 | Canada | Per Brask and Patrick Friesen (trans.) | Frayed Opus for Strings & Wind Instruments by Ulrikka S. Gernes | Finalist |
| 2016 | Canada | Soraya Peerbaye | Tell: poems for a girlhood | Finalist |
| 2016 | International | Norman Dubie | The Quotations of Bone | Winner |
| 2016 | International | Joy Harjo | Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings | Finalist |
| 2016 | International | Don Paterson | 40 Sonnets | Finalist |
| 2016 | International | Rowan Ricardo Phillips | Heaven | Finalist |
| 2016 | Lifetime Recognition | Adam Zagajewski | | Winner |
| 2017 | Canada | Jordan Abel | Injun | Winner |
| 2017 | Canada | Hoa Nguyen | Violet Energy Ingots | Finalist |
| 2017 | Canada | Sandra Ridley | Silvija | Finalist |
| 2017 | International | Alice Oswald | Falling Awake | Winner |
| 2017 | International | Jane Mead | World of Made and Unmade | Finalist |
| 2017 | International | Donald Nicholson-Smith (trans.) | In Praise of Defeat by Abdellatif Laabi | Finalist |
| 2017 | International | Denise Riley | Say Something Back | Finalist |
| 2017 | Lifetime Recognition | Frank Bidart | | Winner |
| 2018 | Canada | Billy-Ray Belcourt | This Wound is a World | Winner |
| 2018 | Canada | Aisha Sasha John | I have to live. | Finalist |
| 2018 | Canada | Donato Mancini | Same Diff | Finalist |
| 2018 | International | Susan Howe | Debths | Winner |
| 2018 | International | Tongo Eisen-Martin | Heaven is All Goodbyes | Finalist |
| 2018 | International | Layli Long Soldier | Whereas | Finalist |
| 2018 | International | Natalie Shapero | Hard Child | Finalist |
| 2018 | Lifetime Recognition | Ana Blandiana | | Winner |
| 2019 | Canada | Eve Joseph | Quarrels | Winner |
| 2019 | Canada | Dionne Brand | The Blue Clerk | Finalist |
| 2019 | Canada | Sarah Tolmie | The Art of Dying | Finalist |
| 2019 | International | Don Mee Choi (trans.) | Autobiography of Death by Kim Hyesoon | Winner |
| 2019 | International | Raymond Antrobus | The Perseverance | Finalist |
| 2019 | International | Daniel Borzutzky | Lake Michigan | Finalist |
| 2019 | International | Ani Gjika (trans.) | Negative Space by Luljeta Lleshanaku | Finalist |
| 2019 | Lifetime Recognition | Nicole Brossard | | Winner |

### 2020s

Prior to 2023, the Griffin Poetry Prize was separated into two categories with prizes specifically for Canadian poets and another for international poets with each winner receiving $65,000. However, in 2023, the Canadian-specific prize was eliminated with only one winner selected each year who wins $130,000.

#### 2020-2022

Griffin Poetry Prize winners, finalists, and judges, 2020-2022 :
| Year | Category | Poet | Title | Result |
| 2020 | Canada | Kaie Kellough | Magnetic Equator | Winner |
| 2020 | Canada | Chantal Gibson | How She Read | Finalist |
| 2020 | Canada | Doyali Islam | heft | Finalist |
| 2020 | International | Sarah Riggs (trans.) | Time by Etel Adnan | Winner |
| 2020 | International | Abigail Chabitnoy | How to Dress a Fish | Finalist |
| 2020 | International | Sharon Olds | Arias | Finalist |
| 2020 | International | Natalie Scenters-Zapico | Lima :: Limón | Finalist |
| 2021 | Canada | Canisia Lubrin | The Dyzgraphxst | Winner |
| 2021 | Canada | Joseph A. Dandurand | The East Side of It All | Finalist |
| 2021 | Canada | Yusuf Saadi | Pluviophile | Finalist |
| 2021 | International | Valzhyna Mort | Music for the Dead and Resurrected | Winner |
| 2021 | International | Victoria Chang | Obit | Finalist |
| 2021 | International | Srikanth Reddy | Underworld Lit | Finalist |
| 2021 | International | Tracy K. Smith and Changtai Bi (trans.) | My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree by Yi Lei | Finalist |
| 2022 | Canada | Tolu Oloruntoba | The Junta of Happenstance | Winner |
| 2022 | Canada | David Bradford | Dream of No One But Myself | Finalist |
| 2022 | Canada | Liz Howard | Letters in a Bruised Cosmos | Finalist |
| 2022 | International | Douglas Kearney | Sho | Winner |
| 2022 | International | Sharon Dolin (trans.) | Late to the House of Words by Gemma Gorga | Finalist |
| 2022 | International | Ali Kinsella and Dzvinia Orlowsky (trans.) | Eccentric Days of Hope and Sorrow by Natalka Bilotserkivets | Finalist |
| 2022 | International | Ed Roberson | Asked What Has Changed | Finalist |

#### 2023-present
##### Canadian First Book Prize

Canadian First Book Prize winners :
| Year | Poet | Title | Ref. |
| 2023 | Emily Riddle | The Big Melt | |
| 2024 | Maggie Burton | Chores | |

##### Griffin Poetry Prize

Griffin Poetry Prize winners, finalists, and judges, 2023-present :
| Year | Poet | Title | Result |
| 2023 | Roger Reeves | Best Barbarian | Winner |
| 2023 | Robyn Creswell (trans.) | The Threshold by Iman Mersal | Finalist |
| 2023 | Ada Limón | The Hurting Kind | Finalist |
| 2023 | Susan Musgrave | Exculpatory Lilies | Finalist |
| 2023 | Ocean Vuong | Time Is a Mother | Finalist |
| 2024 | George McWhirter | Self-Portrait in the Zone of Silence | Winner |
| 2024 | Jorie Graham | To 2040 | Finalist |
| 2024 | Ishion Hutchinson | School of Instructions | Finalist |
| 2024 | Halyna Kruk (Amelia M. Glaser and Yuliya Ilchuk, tr.) | A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails | Finalist |
| 2024 | Ann Lauterbach | Door | Finalist |