Ian Williams, Sarah Howe and Ben Lerner named judges for 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize
Canadian poet Ian Williams, Sarah Howe and Ben Lerner comprise the jury for the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize.
Toronto-based Williams was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2013 for the poetry book Personals. The poet and fiction writer's first book of poetry, You Know Who You Are, was shortlisted for the 2013 ReLit Awards and his collection of short stories, Not Anyone's Anything, won the 2012 Danuta Gleed Literary Award.
Williams joins the U.K.-based Howe and U.S.-based Lerner as judges for this year's Griffin Poetry Prize. Howe's first book, 2015's Loop of Jade, won the T.S. Eliot Prize and The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award; Lerner is the author of three books of poetry (The Lichtenberg Figures, Angle of Yaw, and Mean Free Path) and a work of criticism (The Hatred of Poetry).
The Griffin Poetry Prize features two literary prizes of $65,000 each and an additional $10,000 to each shortlisted poet who reads at the annual Griffin Poetry Prize Shortlist Readings in Toronto. The shortlisted books (four international and three Canadian) will be announced on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. From the shortlist, the judges will select the final winners in the International and Canadian categories; the winners of the Griffin Poetry Prize will be named at an awards ceremony to be held in Toronto on Thursday, June 7, 2018.