Poetry Contests, Prizes & Awards in Canada

Poetry contests, prizes and awards across Canada If you have an annual prize you’d like us to add to the list, contact [email protected] with the website and information. The National Magazine Awards website has great seasonal roundups of magazine-run prizes, and Literistic is a subscription service that will send you calls for submissions and contests a month before their…

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2020 Jessamy Stursberg Poetry Prize Winners

  Congratulations to the 2020 Winners of the Jessamy Stursberg Poetry Prize. The jurors were incredibly impressed with the quality of poems submitted this year, and we thank everyone who shared their poetry with us— we know the future of professional poetry in Canada is in good hands! The jurors for the 2020 Jessamy Stursberg…

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2020 Raymond Souster Award Winner: Unmeaningable by Roxanna Bennett

and the 2020 Raymond Souster award goes to… Unmeaningable by Roxanna Bennett (Gordon Hill Press) From the jurors: Where and how is meaning made in a body that interferes with its own lines of communication? Roxanna Bennett’s Unmeaningable is a powerful example of embodied cognition. Crafted with rigorous precision, Bennett’s poems bore into a linguistic system…

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2020 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Winner: Float and Scurry by Heather Birrell

The 2020 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award goes to… Float and Scurry by Heather Birrell (Anvil Press/A Feed Dog Book)     From the jurors: In the rapid-fire collection Float and Scurry, Heather Birrell tackles parenting, patriarchy, personal politics and much more, often while driving the reader to laughter. So many of this book’s subjects and projects…

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2020 Pat Lowther Memorial Award Winner: How She Read by Chantal Gibson

and the 2020 Pat Lowther Memorial Award goes to… How She Read by Chantal Gibson (Caitlin Press)   From the jurors: Chantal Gibson’s How She Read creates its illuminating poetics through language, image, and a hieroglyphic that only slowly reveals its significance. From a song of praise to Black girls; to an homage to the poet’s grandfather, a…

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2020 Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award Winner: Charlie C Petch

and the Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award goes to… Charlie C Petch   Charlie C Petch is an award winning playwright, spoken word artist, haiku deathmaster, host and musical saw player. Petch is touring their spoken word theatre piece, “Mel Malarkey Gets the Bum’s Rush” which got “Best of 2017” from Electric City Magazine for the radio play accompanying album…

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2020 Poetry Awards: Interview with Charlie C Petch

Charlie C Petch is the winner of the 2020 Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award from the League of Canadian Poets. Find out more about Charlie’s poetry and process below.   LCP: What does poetry mean to you? CP: For me, poetry is authenticity, a vehicle for change, for growth, play, escape, and nurturing community.   LCP:…

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2020 Poetry Awards: Interview with Chantal Gibson

Chantal Gibson is the author of How She Read (Caitlin Press), and winner of the 2020 Pat Lowther Memorial Award from the League of Canadian Poets. Find out more about Chantal’s poetry and process below.   LCP: Tell the story of how your collection came to be. CG: I would say How She Read started…

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2020 Poetry Awards: Interview with Roxanna Bennett

Roxanna Bennett is the author of Unmeaningable (Gordon Hill Press) and the winner of the 2020 Raymond Souster Award by the League of Canadian Poets. Find out more about Roxanna’s poetry and process below:   LCP: Tell the story of how your collection came to be. RB: I began gathering and arranging material in different…

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