Short lists announced for $50,000 Griffin Poetry Prizes

The Canadian Press
Published Saturday April 12th, 2008

TORONTO - Simon Fraser University professor emeritus Robin Blaser, considered to be one of North America's most outstanding poets of the postwar period, is in the running for the Griffin Poetry Prize.

Now in its eighth year, the prize awards $50,000 to the best book of Canadian poetry and $50,000 to the best book of international poetry published in English the preceding year.

Blaser made the Canadian short list, announced this week in Toronto, for The Holy Forest: Collected Poems of Robin Blaser (University of California Press).

Montreal writer Robert Majzels and Calgary-born poet Erin Moure made the list for their English translation of Notebook of Roses and Civilization (Coach House Books). The book is by Montreal poet and novelist Nicole Brossard.

Rounding out the Canadian short list is Toronto author David McFadden for Why Are You So Sad? Selected Poems of David W. McFadden (Insomniac Press/4 a.m. Books).

Four books are on the international shortlist: Notes From the Air: Selected Later Poems from John Ashbery (HarperCollins Publishers/Ecco); Elaine Equi's Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems (Coffee House Press); The Complete Poetry: A Bilingual Edition, by Clayton Eshleman, translated from the Spanish, written by Cesar Vallejo (University of California Press); and Selected Poems 1969-2005 from David Harsent (Faber and Faber).