League of Canadian Poets Announces 2017 Awards Shortlists

Today the League of Canadian Poets announced their shortlists for the Gerald Lampert and Pat Lowther Memorial Awards, the Raymond Souster Award and, together with the Calgary Spoken Word Society, the Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award for Spoken Word.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Toronto on Saturday, June 10, 2017. 

Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Shortlist:

Given in the memory of Gerald Lampert, the award recognizes a first book of poetry published by a Canadian writer in the preceding year. The $1000 prize is sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets

2017 Jurors: Vanessa Shields, Shane Neilson, Bernice Lever

• Assdeep in Wonder by Christopher Gudgeon (Anvil Press)
• The Back Channels by Jennifer Houle (Signature Editions)
• Players by John Nyman (Palimpsest Press)
• This Being by Ingrid Ruthig (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• The Unlit Path Behind the House by Margo Wheaton (McGill-Queen’s University Press)
• Songs of Exile by Bänoo Zan (Guernica Editions)

Pat Lowther Memorial Award Shortlist:

Awarded to a book of poetry by a Canadian woman, the award is presented in memory of the late Pat Lowther, whose career was cut short by her untimely death in 1975. The $1000 prize is sponsored by the LCP.

2017 Jurors: Beatriz Hausner, A.F. Moritz, Mary Ellen Csamer

• 100 Days by Juliane Okot Bitek (University of Alberta Press)
• Float by Anne Carson (Knopf)
• Lady Crawford by Julie Cameron Gray (Palimpsest Press)
• Let the Empire Down by Alexandra Oliver (Biblioasis)
• Heaven’s Thieves by Sue Sinclair (Brick Books)
• The Description of the World by Johanna Skibsrud (Wolsak & Wynn) 

Raymond Souster Award Shortlist:

The award honours Raymond Souster, an early founder of the League of Canadian Poets, and is is presented to a book of poetry by a League member published in the preceding year. The $1000 prize is sponsored by the LCP.

2017 Jurors: Micheline Maylor, Jude Neale, Lynn Tait

• Disturbing the Buddha by Barry Dempster (Brick Books)
• silent sister: the mastectomy poems by Beth Everest (Frontenac House)
• Serpentine Loop by Elee Kraljii Gardiner (Anvil Press)
• Burning in this Midnight Dream by Louise Bernice Halfe (Coteau Books)
• The Waking Comes Late by Steven Heighton (House of Anansi Press)
• Après Satie – For Two and Four Hands by Dean Steadman (Brick Books)

Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award for Spoken Word

The award honours a Canadian spoken word artist who has made a substantial contribution to the development of spoken word. The award was first presented at the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival in 2007 and carries a $1000 prize.

2017 Jurors: 2016 Winner RC Weslowski, Tanya Evanson, Sheri-D Wilson 

• Clifton Joseph
• Dwayne Morgan
• d'bi.young anitafrika

Congratulations to all the nominated writers and their publishers!