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Thank God for wealthy poetry lovers.
Roo Borson wins Griffin Poetry Prize
Last Updated Fri, 03 Jun 2005 10:01:13 EDT
CBC Arts
Veteran poets Roo Borson and Charles Simic are the newest winners of the $100,000 Griffin Poetry Prize, the world's richest prize for a single volume of poetry.
Toronto poet Borson was the Canadian winner for Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida, while U.S. poet Simic won the international portion of the prize for his Selected Poems: 1963-2003. Each is awarded $50,000.
Toronto poet Roo Borson "I'm really astonished," the Belgrade-born Simic said as he took the stage. "I'm sort of a gambler. And I didn't have a feeling I'd win."
Simic, a professor of English at the University of New Hampshire, moved to the U.S. in 1952 and began publishing his poetry in 1959. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for The World Doesn't End: Prose Poems in 1990.
Borson took 10 years to write Short Journey, her 10th volume of poetry. "I take a long, slow time with poetry. It deserves it," she told CBC News.
The California-born poet, a past CBC Literary Awards poetry winner and winner of the Governor General's Literary Award in 2004 for Short Journey, has made her home in Canada since the 1970s.
The Griffin prize, established in 2000 by entrepreneur Scott Griffin, was presented Thursday evening at a Toronto gala attended by more than 300 poetry fans, including Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and author Margaret Atwood, who is on the Griffin Prize board of trustees.
"It's been huge," Atwood said of the increasing international recognition of the award. "It's now a known award in poetry circles all over."
Griffin funds both the lucrative prize and the swanky party and says the cost is justified because it gives him the opportunity to shine the spotlight on poets and their work.
U.S. poet Charles Simic (Courtesy Griffin Poetry Prize)
"There are a lot of literary prizes and unless you make a real statement, you just get lost," he said.
When he started the prize, organizers had to distribute free tickets in order to attract 175 people to a pre-awards reading by the shortlisted poets, Griffin said. This year Wednesday's pre-awards reading sold out its more than 800 seats.
As the prize has grown in prominence, so has the number of submissions, with 433 books of poetry from 12 countries submitted. Judges Simon Armitage, Erin Mouré and Tomaz Salamun, all poets themselves, had to read and distill them all into this year's short list.
Selected poems by the finalists are to be published in the annual Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology: A Selection of the 2005 Shortlist. Royalties will be donated to UNESCO for its World Poetry Day.
Both Borson and Simic have also been invited to read at this year's Dublin's Writers Festival, which takes place June 16-17.
Roo Borson wins Griffin Poetry Prize
Last Updated Fri, 03 Jun 2005 10:01:13 EDT
CBC Arts
Veteran poets Roo Borson and Charles Simic are the newest winners of the $100,000 Griffin Poetry Prize, the world's richest prize for a single volume of poetry.
Toronto poet Borson was the Canadian winner for Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida, while U.S. poet Simic won the international portion of the prize for his Selected Poems: 1963-2003. Each is awarded $50,000.
Toronto poet Roo Borson "I'm really astonished," the Belgrade-born Simic said as he took the stage. "I'm sort of a gambler. And I didn't have a feeling I'd win."
Simic, a professor of English at the University of New Hampshire, moved to the U.S. in 1952 and began publishing his poetry in 1959. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for The World Doesn't End: Prose Poems in 1990.
Borson took 10 years to write Short Journey, her 10th volume of poetry. "I take a long, slow time with poetry. It deserves it," she told CBC News.
The California-born poet, a past CBC Literary Awards poetry winner and winner of the Governor General's Literary Award in 2004 for Short Journey, has made her home in Canada since the 1970s.
The Griffin prize, established in 2000 by entrepreneur Scott Griffin, was presented Thursday evening at a Toronto gala attended by more than 300 poetry fans, including Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and author Margaret Atwood, who is on the Griffin Prize board of trustees.
"It's been huge," Atwood said of the increasing international recognition of the award. "It's now a known award in poetry circles all over."
Griffin funds both the lucrative prize and the swanky party and says the cost is justified because it gives him the opportunity to shine the spotlight on poets and their work.
U.S. poet Charles Simic (Courtesy Griffin Poetry Prize)
"There are a lot of literary prizes and unless you make a real statement, you just get lost," he said.
When he started the prize, organizers had to distribute free tickets in order to attract 175 people to a pre-awards reading by the shortlisted poets, Griffin said. This year Wednesday's pre-awards reading sold out its more than 800 seats.
As the prize has grown in prominence, so has the number of submissions, with 433 books of poetry from 12 countries submitted. Judges Simon Armitage, Erin Mouré and Tomaz Salamun, all poets themselves, had to read and distill them all into this year's short list.
Selected poems by the finalists are to be published in the annual Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology: A Selection of the 2005 Shortlist. Royalties will be donated to UNESCO for its World Poetry Day.
Both Borson and Simic have also been invited to read at this year's Dublin's Writers Festival, which takes place June 16-17.
..again! But I'm not a sore loser so well done to the winners! 
