A.F. Moritz, Jan Wagner and Anne Waldman to judge 2024 Griffin Poetry Prize
The award is the world's largest international prize for an English single book of poetry
A.F. Moritz, Jan Wagner and Anne Waldman have been announced as the judges for the 2024 Griffin Poetry Prize.
Founded in 2000 by Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist Scott Griffin, the Griffin Poetry Prize is the world's largest international prize for a single book of poetry written in, or translated into English. The winner will receive $130,000.
Moritz is the author of 20 poetry collections, including The Garden, As Far As You Know and The Sparrow: Selected Poems. For over a decade he has been the Goldring Professor of the Arts and Society at Victoria University at the University of Toronto, where he continues to teach creative writing. He served as the sixth poet laureate for the City of Toronto from March 2019 to May 2023.
He was a three-time finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for poetry: for Rest on the Flight into Egypt in 1999, The Sentinel in 2008 and The New Measures in 2012. As Far As You Know was a finalist for the 2020 Ontario Trillium Award. The Sentinel was also the winner of the 2009 Griffin Poetry Prize.
Other honours Moritz has received include the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Ingram Merrill Fellowship and the Award in Literature of American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
Wagner is a poet, essayist and translator of Anglophone poetry from Berlin. Since 2001, he has published eight poetry collections. Recent works of his include Steine & Erden and Die Live Butterfly Show.
Wagner has received various literary awards, including the 2004 Anna Seghers Prize, the 2005 Ernst Meister Prize for Poetry and most recently, the 2021 PONT International Literary Prize for Intercultural Cooperation. He is a member of the German Academy of Language and Literature.
Waldman is an American poet, professor, performer and cultural activist who has authored over 60 volumes of poetry, poetics and anthologies. She co-founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics program at Naropa University, and continues to teach poetics all over the world.
Her most recent works include Bard, Kinetic and New Weathers: Poetics from the Naropa Archives, which was co-edited with Emma Gomis. Her book The Iovis Trilogy: Colors in The Mechanism of Concealment won the 2012 PEN Center USA Award for Poetry.
The judges are chosen by the Griffin Poetry Prize trustees, whose current board comprises Mark Doty, Carolyn Forché, Scott Griffin, Sarah Howe, Paul Muldoon, Karen Solie, Aleš Šteger and Ian Williams.
American poet Roger Reeves won the 2023 Griffin Poetry Prize for Best Barbarian.
Past Canadian winners of the prize include Tolu Oloruntoba for The Junta of Happenstance, Canisia Lubrin for The Dyzgraphxst and Kaie Kellough for Magnetic Equator.
Last year the Griffin Poetry Prize announced that they would be combining their international and Canadian prizes into one major award, which previously amounted to $65,000 each.
The other shortlisted poets will each receive $10,000.
A $10,000 prize is also awarded for a Canadian First Book of poetry for a first book written in English by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. The winner will complete a six-week residency in Italy in partnership with the Civitella Ranieri Foundation.
The shortlist for the prize is expected to be announced next year in mid-March, while the longlist will be released mid-April.
The winner of the 2024 Griffin Poetry Prize is expected to be revealed in June.
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