2026 Lesley Strutt Poetry Contest Winner
Congratulations to the 2026 Lesley Strutt Poetry Contest Winner, Allison Bothley!
The League of Canadian Poets is proud to present the winner of the 2026 Arts & Letters Club of Toronto Foundation Poetry Award: Allison Bothley's "UNDER DRAWING".
UNDER DRAWING: After Jing Fu’s Unearthed – My Equilibrium by Allison Bothley
“I am incredibly moved to receive the Lesley Strutt Poetry Prize. It is a great honour to be recognized by an award created in memory of someone so passionate about inspiring others to write and enjoy poetry. I believe Canadian poetry is alive and well, thanks in no small part to LCP and to the people who continue to make space for new voices.
‘Under Drawing’ began in community at an Artist-Poets gathering, and I’m so glad it has found its way here. It is about the body, inheritance, and the complicated knowledge that comes with watching our children grow towards lives beyond us. At a time when motherhood can still be flattened into a single story, I’m grateful for the opportunity to make space for some of its complexity.”
Honorable mentions
About the juror
Leilei Chen
Leilei Chen 莫译 is a literary translator, poet, writer, and lecturer. She is the author of Re-orienting China: Travel Writing and Cross-cultural Understanding and i give birth to my body. Her translations include Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction, Margaret Laurence’s short stories, Chinese women’s writing in Virginia’s Sisters, ecological literature in Environmental Futures, and MA Hui’s poetry in I Have Forsaken Heaven and Earth, but Never Forsaken You. Her poem “i give birth to my body” was selected for the League of Canadian Poets’ Poetry Pause for Disability Month in 2026 and, with “surprising tears,” received the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association’s Silver Award for Poetry.
About the contest
The Lesley Strutt Poetry Contest is run annually, with submissions opening in June. Winners are announced in September.
The Lesley Strutt Poetry Contest is an award that provides a $500 prize for the single best poem submitted to our judges. This contest is open to all poets (professional, emerging, and first-time) in Canada, and is run each summer in memory of poet and friend Lesley Strutt.