Books

Billy-Ray Belcourt, Canisia Lubrin, Phoebe Wang longlisted for 2018 poetry prizes

The League of Canadian Poets announced award finalists for three of their prizes on World Poetry Day.
Poets Billy-Ray Belcourt, Canisia Lubrin and Phoebe Wang are on the 2018 Poetry Awards longlist. (Frontenac House/Anna Keenan/Guillaume Morissette)

The League of Canadian Poets announced on World Poetry Day (March 21, 2018) the longlists for its 2018 Poetry Awards, including the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the Raymond Souster Award.

This year is the first time the organization has released the longlists of the award finalists. Poets on multiple longlists include Billy-Ray Belcourt, Canisia Lubrin and Phoebe Wang.

The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and Pat Lowther Memorial Award have been awarded annually since 1981 and are given to a new book of poetry by an emerging Canadian writer and a work by a female Canadian poet, respectively. The Raymond Souster Award, started in 2013, is presented annually for a book of poetry by a League member published in the preceding year. Each award carries a $1,000 prize. 

See the complete 2018 Poetry Awards longlists below.

Gerald Lampert Memorial Award:

  • This Wound is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt 
  • Iolaire by Karen Clavelle 
  • Faunics by Jack Davis 
  • Thin Air of the Knowable by Wendy Donawa 
  • Voodoo Hypothesis by Canisia Lubrin
  • The Divining Pool by Amanda Merritt 
  • Otolith by Emily Nilsen 
  • The Panic Room by Rebecca Păpucaru 
  • The Rules of the Kingdom by Julie Paul 
  • Better Nature by Fenn Stewart 
  • Admission Requirements by Phoebe Wang 
  • Fragments, Desire by Onjana Yawnghwe 

Pat Lowther Memorial Award:

  • Indianland by Lesley Belleau 
  • Feel Happier in Nine Seconds by Linda Besner 
  • The Corpses of the Future by Lynn Crosbie
  • Bicycle Thieves by Mary di Michele 
  • Museum of Kindness by Susan Elmslie
  • Breathing at Dusk by Beth Goobie 
  • Penelope by Sue Goyette 
  • Linger Still by Aislinn Hunter 
  • Siren by Kateri Lanthier 
  • Voodoo Hypothesis by Canisia Lubrin 
  • Little Wildheart by Micheline Maylor 
  • All We Saw by Anne Michaels 
  • Otolith by Emily Nilsen 
  • Dear Ghost by Catherine Owen 
  • Thing Is by Suzannah Showler 
  • Admission Requirements by Phoebe Wang 

Raymond Souster Award:

  • This Wound is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt 
  • Late Style by Barry Dempster 
  • Thin Air of the Knowable by Wendy Donawa 
  • The Better Monsters by Puneet Dutt 
  • Cloud Physics by Karen Enns 
  • Slow War by Benjamin Hertwig 
  • Trailer Park Elegy by Cornelia Hoogland 
  • Beautiful Children with Pet Foxes by Jennifer LoveGrove 
  • Voodoo Hypothesis by Canisia Lubrin 
  • Little Wildheart by Micheline Maylor 
  • This Real by Concetta Principe 
  • Dead White Men by Shane Rhodes 
  • Mischief by John Terpstra 

The 2018 Poetry Awards shortlists will be announced on April 30, 2018. The winners will be revealed at a gala in Toronto on June 16, 2018.