Griffin Poetry Prize Announces 2022 Shortlists, with a Second Appearance for Liz Howard

Today the Griffin Poetry Prize announced their international and Canadian shortlists for the 2022 prizes. Notably, Liz Howard makes her second appearance on the Canadian list, with her previous collection, Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent, having won the prize in 2016. The other two Canadian nominees, David Bradford and Tolu Oloruntoba, both made the list with debut collections, an impressive feat. 

Of particular and timely note on the international list, we see Kyiv-based writer Natalka Bilotserkivets, whose collection specifically focuses on the history and identity of Ukraine. 

International Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist 2022: 

• Late to the House of Words by Sharon Dolin, translated from the Catalan by Gemma Gorga (Saturnalia Books)
• Sho by Douglas Kearney (Wave Books)
• Eccentric Days of Hope and Sorrow by Natalka Bilotserkivets, translated from the Ukrainian by Ali Kinsella and Dzvinia Orlowsky (Lost Horse Press)
• Asked What Has Changed by Ed Roberson (Wesleyan University Press)

Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist 2022:

• Dream of No One But Myself by David Bradford (Brick Books)
• Letters in a Bruised Cosmos by Liz Howard (McClelland & Stewart)
• The Junta of Happenstance by Tolu Oloruntoba (Anstruther Books/Palimpsest Press)

Each prize will award the winner $65,000 and the remaining nominees $10,000. The winners will be announced via the Griffin Prize's social media channels on June 15. 

Judges Adam Dickinson (Canada), Valzhyna Mort (Belarus/US), and Claudia Rankine (Jamaica/US) each read 639 books of poetry, including 57 translations from 24 languages, submitted by 236 publishers from 16 different countries.

Past winners of the Griffin Poetry Prizes include Canisia Lubrin, Anne Carson, Paul Muldoon, Dionne Brand, and John Ashbery. The prize, which rewards first edition single collections of poetry written in, or translated into, English, is considered the most prestigious poetry prize in Canada and, for the international prize, amongst the most prestigious prizes abroad. It was founded by writer and philanthropist Scott Griffin, who supports the prize through the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry.