Attended the 2015 Griffin Poetry Prize Shortlist Readings

The 2015 Griffin Poetry Prize Shortlist Readings last night at Koerner Hall (each writer gets $10,000. for being shortlisted, the books translated share the money) – Shane Book, Eleanor Goodman and Wang Xiaoni, Marek Kazmierski and Wioletta Greg, Michael Longley, Jane Munro, Spencer Reece and Russell Thornton - was magnifico! Saw quite a few poets from the Toronto poetry scene there - which was wonderful. The reception afterwards was a lot of fun too, thanks Quattro Books - who have a book shortlisted - The Hundred Lives by Russell Thornton (I'll be writing a review of his book). The readings were top notch, and who is going to win will be a difficult decision for the judges, who narrowed down this year's shortlist from a submission of 500 poetry books from Canadian publishers. Took the photo with my iPhone without realizing I shouldn't have (my bad), but I did get permission to post it.

I also bought, The Griffin Poetry Prize 2015 Anthology (edited by Tim Bowling, published by House of Anansi Press), a collection of a few poems by each of the authors shortlisted. Royalties from The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology are donated to UNESCO’s World Poetry Day, created to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression, and to offer endangered languages the opportunities to be heard in their communities.