The highly anticipated annual anthology of the best Canadian and international poetry.

Each year, the best books of poetry published in English internationally and in Canada are honoured with the Griffin Poetry Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious and richest literary awards. Since 2001 this annual prize has acted as a tremendous spur to interest in and recognition of poetry, focusing worldwide attention on the formidable talent of poets writing in English. And each year The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology features the work of the extraordinary poets shortlisted for the awards, and introduces us to some of the finest poems in their collections.

In choosing the 2015 shortlist, prize jurors Tim Bowling, Fanny Howe, and Piotr Sommer will consider hundreds of collections published in 2014. The jury members will also write the citations that introduce the seven poets’ nominated works.

Royalties generated from The 2015 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology will be donated to UNESCO’s World Poetry Day, which was created to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard in their communities.

Shortlist to be announced: April 7, 2015
Readings: June 3, 2015
Prizes awarded: June 4, 2015

Tim Bowling has published numerous poetry collections, including Low Water Slack; Dying Scarlet (winner of the 1998 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for poetry); Darkness and Silence (winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry); The Witness Ghost; and The Memory Orchard (both nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award). He is also the author of three novels, Downriver Drift (Harbour), The Paperboy's Winter (Penguin) and The Bone Sharps (Gaspereau Press). His first book of non-fiction, The Lost Coast: Salmon, Memory and the Death of Wild Culture (Nightwood Editions), was shortlisted for three literary awards: The Writers' Trust Nereus Non-Fiction Award, the BC Book Prizes' Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize and the Alberta Literary Awards' Wilfred Eggleston Award for Non-Fiction. The Lost Coast was also chosen as a 2008 Kiriyama Prize "Notable Book." Bowling is the recipient of the Petra Kenney International Poetry Prize, the National Poetry Award and the Orillia International Poetry Prize. Bowling was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008. A native of the West Coast, he now lives in Edmonton Alberta. His latest collection of poetry is Tenderman (Nightwood), due out in fall 2011.

Tim Bowling's profile page

FANNY HOWE has written numerous books of fiction and poetry and has won a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Ruth Lilly Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. Her most recent collection of poetry, Second Childhood, was published in 2014. She lives in Massachusetts and is currently a Visiting Writer at Brown University.

Fanny Howe's profile page

PIOTR SOMMER has written numerous books in Polish, including a selected poems Po ciemku tez. His poetry has been translated into many languages. He has also published two books of essays, as well as translations of American, English, and Irish verse into Polish. His books in English are Things to Translate, Continued, and Overdoing It. He has taught at several American universities and has been awarded numerous prizes and fellowships. He lives outside of Warsaw, Poland.

Piotr Sommer's profile page