Montreal poet Nicole Brossard has been selected to receive the Griffin Trust for Excellence In Poetry, an annual lifetime achievement award that comes with $20,000.

Brossard has published over 30 books — poetry, essays and fiction — since 1965 and is an officer of the Order of Canada.

She has twice won the Governor General's Literary Award for poetry in French: in 1974 for Mécanique jongleuse suivi de Masculin grammaticale and in 1984 for Double Impression.

The French Canadian's poetry and fiction have been translated into many languages, including English, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese and Slovenian.

Her books in English include the poetry collections Nicole Brossard: Selections, translated by Jennifer Moxley in 2010, Notebook of Roses and Civilization, translated by Robert Majzels and Erin Mouré in 2006 and shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, and Installations, translated by Robert Majzels and Erin Mouré in 1989.

Brossard's novels include the feminist classic Mauve Desert, first published in French in 1987 and later translated into English by Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood. The book is being adapted into an opera, planned for 2020-2021.

Brossard is also the co-editor of the poetry book Anthologie de la poésie des femmes au Québec, a critically celebrated anthology published in 1991 and 2003.

Her many honours include the inaugural Violet Prize, le Prix international de la littérature francophone Benjamin Fondane, le Prix du CIÉF for International Francophone Studies, the W.O. Mitchell Prize and the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize.

The Griffin Trust's Lifetime Recognition Award is presented annually to a poet from anywhere in the world in celebration of their body of work.

Past recipients include South Korea's Ko Un, Northern Ireland's Seamus Heaney and St. Lucia's Derek Walcott.