Ishion Hutchinson and Fred Moten are on the longlist for Canada’s Griffin Poetry Prize 2024 announced on Wednesday, March 20, 2024.
The Griffin Poetry Prize is the world’s largest international prize for a first-edition single collection of poetry written in or translated into English. The Canada-based prize was founded by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin in 2000. The award has geographical categories with one for a Canadian poet and one international poet who writes in the English language. Some previous winners have been Anne Carson, Nikolai Popov, Kamau Brathwaite, and Canisia Lubrin. Tolu Oloruntoba and Douglas Kearney won in 2022 and Roger Reeves won it in 2023.
For 2024, the Jury of Albert F. Moritz (Canada), Jan Wagner (Germany), and Anne Waldman (USA) each read 592 books of poetry, including 49 translations from 22 languages, submitted by 235 publishers from 14 different countries. From these, the longlist featured the following writers of African descent;
- School of Instructions, Ishion Hutchinson, Jamaica, Faber & Faber, and Farrar, Straus & Giroux
- perennial fashion presence falling, Fred Moten, USA, Wave Books
The five shortlisted books will be announced on April 17 while the winner will be made public at the Griffin Poetry Prize Readings in Toronto on June 5, and will be awarded $130,000. The other shortlisted finalists will each receive $10,000.
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