Etel Adnan and Kaie Kellough Take Home 2020 Griffin Poetry Prizes

The Griffin Poetry Prizes for 2020 have been awarded to Etel Adnan for Time, translated by Sarah Riggs (Nightboat); and Montreal poet Kaie Kellough, for his third collection, Magnetic Equator (McClelland & Stewart), in the International and Canadian categories, respectively. At Quill & Quire, Ryan Porter notes that of the $65,000 prize, Riggs will take 60 percent, with the remaining 40 percent going to Adnan. And Adina Bresge at the Globe and Mail has more on the process:

In an interview ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, prize founder and chairman Scott Griffin said the Canadian finalists are a testament to how the country is on the “leading edge” of experimental poetry.

“They’ve pushed the envelope on this one,” he said. “They have used the fonts and the layout of the page as part of the poem, and each one has done that in a different way.”

The international runners-up were: How to Dress a Fish by Colorado-based Abigail Chabitnoy; Arias by New York-based Sharon Olds; Lima :: Limon by Natalie Scenters-Zapico, who grew up on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Each finalist will take home $10,000.

Organizers say judges Paula Meehan of Ireland, Jamaican poet Kei Miller and Canada’s Hoa Nguyen each read 572 books of poetry from 14 countries to select the 2020 short list.

Congrats to everyone!