Location: Fermoy, Ireland
Description: Fermoy (Irish: Mainistir Fhear Maí meaning “Monastery of the Men of the plain”) is a town in North County Cork (population approx. 5,800) in the south of Ireland situated on the banks of the river Blackwater in the heart of the picturesque Blackwater Valley. The town’s name comes from the Irish language and refers to a Cisterian abbey founded in the 13th century here.

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Start Date: August 1, 2013
End Date: August 5, 2013

Location: United Kingdom
Description: The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award is an opportunity for any young poet aged 11-17 to accelerate their writing career. Since it began 15 years ago the Award has kick-started the career of some of today’s most exciting new voices, including this year’s judge Helen Mort, a successful poet whose next collection is to be published by Chatto & Windus. With entries from over 7,300 young people this year across from the UK and worldwide, it is the largest competition of its kind and its importance is widely attested.

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Date: July 31, 2013

Description: The Eden Mills Writers’ Festival was founded in 1989 and has taken place annually since then. Although it started out as the fulfillment of Governor General Award winner Leon Rooke’s personal vision, the Festival has matured and expanded over the years becoming a nationally acclaimed and widely respected literary event that still maintains a small “footprint.”

The Eden Mills Writers’ Festival Literary contest is open internationally to new and modestly published writers, who are invited to submit a short story (2500 words max.), poetry collection (of 5 poems or less), or one-act play. The best entry in each category will win a $250 prize.

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Date: July 31, 2013

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Description: The University of Edinburgh’s School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures in partnership with the Scottish Poetry Library present the Picador poet John Glenday who will read from his work following an introduction from Miriam Gamble.

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Date: July 16, 2013

Location: Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada
Description: The Saskatchewan Festival of Words (established in 1996) holds a literary festival every July with 60 events over 4 days in and around historic downtown Moose Jaw. The festival showcases literary talent from all over Canada including many award winners (approximately 30 presenters each festival.) Over the 4 days of the festival we have workshops for all ages, reading sessions, concerts, film, and panel discussions and interviews. Some previous performers at the festival have been: Margaret Atwood, Lorna Crozier, Yann Martel, Lawrence Hill, Jack Hodgins, Shane Koyczan, Dionne Brand, Charlotte Gray, Robert J. Sawyer, Denise Chong, Stephen Brunt, Patrick Lane, Steven Galloway, Sharon Pollock, and M.G. Vassanji.

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Start Date: July 18, 2013
End Date: July 21, 2013

Description: The annual Rattle Poetry Prize offers $5,000 for a single poem to be published in the winter issue of the magazine. Ten finalists will also receive $100 each and publication, and be eligible for the $1,000 Readers’ Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber and entrant vote.

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Date: July 15, 2013

Location: Canada
Description: The bpNichol Chapbook Award recognizes excellence in Canadian poetry published in chapbook form. The prize is awarded to a poetry chapbook judged to be the best submitted. The author receives $2,000 and the publisher receives $500. Awarded continuously since 1986, the bpNichol Chapbook Award is currently administered by the Meet the Presses collective.

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Date: July 1, 2013

String quartet at St. Dunstan’s in Fleet Street.
Violinist cut her finger in a kitchen
accident and hadn’t played for a year.
Microscopic surgery. Cut nerve.
But now she thinks she’s going to be fine.

After the wine and cheese reception (tacky!)
(but nice) took picture of an old statue
of Queen Elizabeth (the first) that had just
been discovered in somebody’s basement
and installed over the sacristy door.

Walking all through Westminster buying slides.
Weatherman on BBC-1:
Today most wet spots will become
dry and most dry spots will become wet.
Of course he said this with a smiling face.

The Griffin Poetry Prize was founded in 2000 to serve and encourage excellence in poetry. The prize is for first edition books of poetry written in, or translated into, English and submitted from anywhere in the world.

International Winner	Canadian Winner
Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems translated from the Arabic by Fady Joudah written by Ghassan Zaqtan Yale University Press	What’s the Score? David McFadden Mansfield Press

Scott Griffin presents the 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize winners: Fady Joudah and Ghassan Zaqtan (International) and David McFadden (Canadian).

The awards ceremony, attended by some 400 invited guests, was held at Corus Quay – a new venue featuring a five-storey bio-wall and a wall of glass with doors opening onto a lakefront promenade. Scott Griffin, founder of the prize, and trustees Margaret Atwood, Robert Hass, Michael Ondaatje and David Young hosted the event where the guests enjoyed speeches and readings by Pura López-Colomé and Kyla Kane, first national champion (English Stream) of Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie.

The Judges for the 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize are Suzanne Buffam (Canada), Mark Doty (USA) and Wang Ping (China). These distinguished writers and poets each read 509 books of poetry, received from 40 countries around the globe, including 15 translations. The trustees of The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry select the judges annually.

The 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist features collections by four international and three Canadian poets:

• Fady Joudah’s translation from the Arabic of Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems by Ghassan Zaqtan, published by Yale University Press
• Jennifer Maiden’s Liquid Nitrogen, published by Giramondo Publishing
• Alan Shapiro’s Night of the Republic, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Brenda Shaughnessy’s Our Andromeda, published by Copper Canyon Press

• David W McFadden’s What’s the Score? published by Mansfield Press
• James Pollock’s Sailing to Babylon, published by Able Muse Press
• Ian Williams’ Personals, published by Freehand Books

On June 12 the poets read excerpts from their books at the Shortlist Readings for 1,000 people in Toronto in Koerner Hall at The Royal Conservatory, TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning. Trustee Carolyn Forché presented each poet with a leather-bound edition of their book and a $10,000 honorarium for their participation in the Readings.

The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology: A Selection of the 2013 Shortlist, edited by Suzanne Buffam and published by House of Anansi Press, is now available at most retail bookstores. Royalties generated from the anthologies, published annually, are donated to UNESCO’s World Poetry Day.

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For further information, contact:

Shortlist summary, poet bios and citations
Download press release | Download photos

Purchase 2013 Griffin Prize Anthology and shortlist books online
Return to the News Release index.

Photo credit: Event photo by Tom Sandler

Nebulae, incandescent frog spawn of information
Trembling in the claw of Scorpio
Not an instant, then shooting away
Like an enormous cloud of starlings

Garbage scows move slowly down the estuary
The lights of the airport pulse in morning darkness
Food trucks, propane, tortured hearts
The reticent epistemologist parks
Gets out, checks the curb, reparks
Thunder of jets
Peristalsis of great capitals

How pretty in her tartan scarf
Her ruminative frown
Ambiguity and Reason
Locked in a slow, ferocious tango
Of if not, why not