Thomas King among writers longlisted for 2020 League of Canadian Poets awards
Samraweet Yohannes | | Posted: April 6, 2020 8:08 PM | Last Updated: April 6, 2020
Thomas King is among the writers longlisted for the League of Canadian Poets' 2020 poetry awards.
The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, Pat Lowther Memorial Award and Raymond Souster Award, each worth $2,000, celebrate the best in Canadian poetry.
The prizes were created by the League of Canadian Poets, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting poets and poetry in Canada.
King is a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin, his first poetry collection. The celebrated Canadian author, who has written mysteries, memoirs and novels, wrote 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin to celebrate turning 77 years old.
The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award recognizes the best debut book of poetry.
Alessandra Naccarato, the winner of the 2017 CBC Poetry Prize, is nominated for both the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the Pat Lowther Memorial Award for her collection Re-Origin of Species.
Re-Origin of Species features the winning poem, Postcards for my Sister.
The Pat Lowther Memorial Award recognizes a collection of poetry by a Canadian woman while the Raymond Souster Award recognizes the best book of poetry overall published by a member of the League.
Also nominated is 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize winner Billy-Ray Belcourt. Belcourt is a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award for his sophomore poetry collection, NDN Coping Mechanisms.
Belcourt won the Griffin Poetry Prize for his first poetry collection, This Wound is a World. His memoir, A History of My Brief Body, is coming out in May 2020.
The three longlists were revealed on April 6, 2020.
The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award was created in 1981. This year's jury features Anna Yin, Ben Ladouceur and Robin Richardson.
The 2020 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award longlist includes:
- What Fox Knew by Mary Barnes
- Boom Time by Lindsay Bird
- How She Read by Chantal Gibson
- Live Ones by Sadie McCarney
- The Truth About Facts by Bart Vautour
- Common Brown House Moths by Laura Zacharin
- Float & Scurry by Heather Birrell
- Doubter's Hymnal by Laura Cok
- What to Wear When Surviving A Lion Attack by Paola Ferrante
- 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin by Thomas King
- Re-Origin of Species by Alessandra Naccarato
- These are not the potatoes of my youth by Matthew Walsh
The Pat Lowther Memorial Award has been awarded annually since 1981. This year's jury includes Annick MacAskill, Billeh Nickerson and Soraya Peerebaye.
The 2020 Pat Lowther Memorial Award longlist includes:
- Re-Origin of Species by Alessandra Naccarato
- This Is How We Disappear by Titilope Sonuga
- Strange Attractor by Anne Simpson
- Bewilderness by Catherine Black
- Sonnet's Shakespeare by Sonnet L'Abbé
- Renaissance Normcore by Adèle Barclay
- Inquiries by Michelle Porter
- Unmeaningable by Roxanna Bennett
- Sotto Voce by Maureen Hynes
- Cluster by Souvankham Thammavongsa
- heft by Doyali Islam
- The Caiplie Caves by Karen Solie
- How She Read by Chantal Gibson
The Raymond Souster Award was established in 2013. This year's jury is made up of Jim Johnston, Suzanne Zelazo and Randy Lundy.
The 2020 Raymond Souster Award longlist includes:
- NDN Coping Mechanisms by Billy-Ray Belcourt
- Unmeaningable by Roxanna Bennett
- Boom Time by Lindsay Bird
- How She Read by Chantal Gibson
- Unidentified Poetic Objects by Brian Henderson
- Sonnet's Shakespeare by Sonnet L'Abbe
- Drolleries by Cassidy McFadzean
- New Brunswick by Shane Neilson
- Treaty # by Armand Garnet Ruffo
- Strange Attractor by Anne Simpson
- Cluster by Souvankham Thammavongsa
- Crow Gulch by Douglas Walbourne-Gough
The shortlisted titles for all three awards will be revealed on April 20, 2020.
The winners will be announced on May 29, 2020.