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Just came back from the shortlist readings for this year's Griffin Poetry Prize. Based on my listening to what was read and some notes I made, here are some quick impressions. This is in presentation order.John Ashbery led off with a boring poem about Ireland. He identified one of his read poems as a 'prose' (prosaic?) piece. It contained the words 'mediocre vintage', which made me think of Ashbery's poetry in general. There was something terribly ordinary, terribly everyday about his language. Elaine Equi said this was her first reading outside of the United States. She's from New York. She read a bunch of pieces that she identified as aphorisms, which made me think of Robert Priest. She described having created a poem type that had a few (perhaps one or two) words per line. She read one piece of this type, which was the most interesting portion of her reading. Thereafter she was unremarkable. The poetry of César Vallejo (a Peruvian who died in 1938) was read by a standin because Clayton Eshleman (the translator) was in France leading a caving trek. I found the language surprisingly (or maybe not surprisingly) better than anything before this reading.
David Harsent was the final International reader. I loved his use of the verb form 'flensing', which needs to be in more poems. Harsent was rather better with his languaging than were the others.Based on what I heard earlier and on nothing else, the International award for the Griffin PP would be a tossup between the poetries of César Vallejo and David Harsent... fifteen-minute break (from near boredom)... As it transpired, the most interesting portion of the evening were the minutes that surrounded the presenting of the Lifetime Recognition Award to Korean poet Ko Un. Robert Hass, a GPP trustee, read a lengthy history of the Korean's travails, which included the years that had been spent as a political prisoner for the crime of poetry. Robin Blaser, 83 this year, was weak voiced. The audience was deathly still, straining for every faint word, as if awaiting death, his. Respect may be due the man, however his poetry was forgettable.Nicole Brossard was next to be featured. She was introduced by Pura López Colomé, who is from Mexico. She is, amongst other things, a translator. Brossard, who read mostly in French, shared the stage with her two cotranslators, Robert Majzels and Erín Moure, who seems to have repositioned the accent in her name three vowels forward. RM and EM shared the mike with NB. This three-way reading was definitely the most interesting portion of the evening and it made up for somewhat of a language shortcoming. Blame that on the translators, perhaps.Last, and maybe least, was David McFadden, who was introed (by US- residing Brit James Lasdun) as a "major underground poet all his life". Well, one would think that someone that much on the outside would have come up with something more interesting than the pieces he presented us. Those poems were mostly about numbers. One particular poem, which was (to me) 7X boring, was fixated on the number 7. For my money, Brossard was the clear winner in the Canadian section. The geezer poetry parade did nothing for me. That said, this is based on what I heard at the shortlist readings, not on what I read. My gut feelings, based on the readings, contradict my April 28th predictions, which had been made after my analysis of Griffin trends. Who knows, perhaps my gut reactions will be correct, however (based on prior experience) I have usually been wrong coming away from the shortlist readings. From my point of view, the Griffin Poetry Prize has made many horrendous decisions over the years. The GPP, administered by The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry, panders to sentimentality in the absence of sound poetry decisions. For example, how can one countenance Charles Simic (whose poetry, to me, is drop-dead boring) having won the International prize in 2005 over the clearly superior poet Michael Symmons Roberts from England?The Griffin Poetry Prize is yet another mouthpiece for conventional poetry. Most think it's great. The unreconstructed Griffers certainly think so. Click the pic following for webpages of selfcongratulation.
During the week of Influency 4's conclusion, judges for the country's premier poetry award, the Griffin Poetry Prize, will make their revelations. The GPP (currently worth 50,000$ Canadian) is esteemed, such as it may be, because it is this planet's most remunerative award given solely for poetry. There are two winners, a Canadian and an International, each pocketing 50-thousand dollars of local currency. The Nobel Prize for Literature (worth more than 1.7-million dollars US) is by far the richest prize for writing, however it has rarely been awarded for poetry. Wis?awa Szymborska, who wrote in Polish, won it in 1996. She was the most recent poet to have won this highly political prize. James Adams (in an April 16th Globe and Mail article: 'Gender gap on the literary jury') wrote about the sex imbalance in the literary-prize-award business. He pointed out that males dominated when it came to jury makeup as it pertained to various well-known awards. "Of the seven, three-member panels assembled to date for the Griffin Poetry Prize, six have had the familiar 2:1 male/female ratio. His point is well taken even if his math is slightly off. Five of seven were as Adams described. Since the inception of the Griffin PP, there have been two years (2003 and 2006) where the ratio has flipped. The sex breakdown of the Griffin Poetry Prize for the years 2001 to 2008 inclusively is thus: poets: 35 males and 21 females; judges: 14 males and 10 females. Please note that I have chosen to list only the actual poets whose works have been shortlisted. Were I to employ the Griffin PP method of listing translators (and not the poets translated) then the numbers would augment slightly. Thus the alternate poet-sex total representation: 35 males and 24 females. On a yearly basis, the male-to-female ratios of Griffin Poetry Prize participants have been: 2001: 7:3, 2002: 6:4, 2003: 4:6, 2004: 5:5, 2005: 7:3, 2006: 5:5, 2007: 8:2, 2008: 7:3. The eight-year total: 49:31. Though half of the population, females were only 39% represented in the GPP selection process. The following list shows those poets whose books were shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. In six instances, translations were shortlisted. The non-included (non-listed) translators have been named. The year of birth of each poet has been given, as well as the age the poet attained in the prize year. Where the poet (whose work has been featured) is deceased, the year of death is given. The age given for a deceased poet is the age at death, not the age at which the poet had been published.
Robert Bringhurst (1946–55)
Anne Carson (1950–51) Canadian winner
Don McKay (1942–59)
Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000–76) (translation by Chana Bloch & Chana Kronfeld)
Paul Celan (1920-1970–50) International winner (translation by Heather McHugh & Nikolai Popov)
Fanny Howe (1940–61)
Les Murray (1938–63)
Carolyn Forché (1950–51)
Dennis Lee (1939–62)
Paul Muldoon (1951–50)
Christian Bök (1966–36) Canadian winner
Erín Moure (1955–47)
Karen Solie (1966–36)
Victor Hernández Cruz (1949–53)
Christopher Logue (1926–76)
Les Murray (1938–64)
Alice Notley (1945–57) International winner
Dionne Brand (1953–49)
Robert Creeley (1926–76)
Michael Hofmann (1957–45)
Margaret Avison (1918–85) Canadian winner
Dionne Brand (1953–50)
P K Page (1916–87)
Kathleen Jamie (1962–41)
Paul Muldoon (1951–52) International winner
Gerald Stern (1925 ... 78)
C D Wright (1949 ... 54)
Michael Longley (1939 ... 64)
Sharon Olds (1942 ... 61)
Sharon Thesen (1946 ... 57)
Di Brandt (1952–52)
Leslie Greentree (birthyear unknown)
Anne Simpson (1956–48) Canadian winner
Suji Kwock Kim (1969–35)
David Kirby (1944–60)
August Kleinzahler (1949–54) International winner
Louis Simpson (1923–81) (won 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry)
Billy Collins (1941–63)
Bill Manhire (1946–58)
Phyllis Webb (1927–77)
Roo Borson (1952–53) Canadian winner
George Bowering (1935–70)
Don McKay (1942–63)
Fanny Howe (1940–65)
Michael Symmons Roberts (1963–42)
Matthew Rohrer (1970–35)
Charles Simic (1938–67) ... International winner
Simon Armitage (1963–42)
Erín Moure (1955–50)
Tomaz Salamun (1941–64)
Phil Hall (1953–53)
Sylvia Legris (1960–46) ... Canadian winner
Erín Moure (1955–51)
Kamau Brathwaite (1930–76) ... International winner
Durs Grünbein (1962–44) (translated by Michael Hofmann)
Dunya Mikhail (1965–41) (translated by Elizabeth Winslow)
Michael Palmer (1943–63)
Lavinia Greenlaw (1962–44)
Lisa Robertson (1961–45)
Eliot Weinberger (1949–57)
Ken Babstock (1970–37)
Don McKay (1942–65) Canadian winner
Priscila Uppal (1974–33)
Paul Farley (1965–42)
Rodney Jones (est. age ... 60+)
Frederick Seidel (1936–71)
Charles Wright (1935–72) International winner
John Burnside (1955–52)
Charles Simic (1938–69)
Karen Solie (1966–41)
Robin Blaser (1925–83) Canadian winner*
Nicole Brossard (1943–65) (translation by Robert Majzels & Erín Moure)
David McFadden (1940–68)
John Ashbery (1927–81) International winner*
Elaine Equi (1953–55)
David Harsent (1942–66)
César Vallejo (1892-1938–46) (translation by Clayton Eshleman)
George Bowering (1935–73)
James Lasdun (1958–50)
Pura López Colomé (est. age–50+)
Poetry is not for the faint of heart and it may not be for the young at heart. It certainly is not for the young of heart, chronologically speaking. Tallying from the above list, one finds that only about one quarter of those (judges and/or poets) involved with the Griffin shortlist is below the midcentury mark. Generally, the ticket to winning is to be 50 years of age at least. Only three winners, all Canadians, have won the Griffin Poetry Prize under the age of 50. That is out of fourteen winners (as of 2007). Except for Kamau Brathwaite (2006), all winners have been white. Only one poetry translation (2001) has won. The Griffin has consciously (and perhaps even self-consciously) had one female and one male as winners each year, except for one year. That 2007 would be a double-male year for the Griffin Poetry Prize was almost a given. There was only one woman on the shortlist and she was not even remotely strong enough to overcome the talent and the popularity of the ultimate winner (Don McKay) that year. If I were a bettor, and I am (though only on occasion), I would use my GPP perspicacity to highlight red John Ashbery and Robin Blaser for their respective big nods, as I have done. In my estimation, 2008 will again be a double-male year for the Griffin Poetry Prize. My GPS on the GPP to the young and female: get a sex change and await your ninth decade. And while that's happening, don't sweat the quality of your poetry.
*unofficial selection made by OmahaRisinG
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