The 2011 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology and a moving memoir from Granta
THE 2011 GRIFFIN POETRY PRIZE ANTHOLOGY
edited by
Tim LilburnThe highly anticipated annual anthology of the best Canadian and international poetry. The best books of poetry published in English internationally and in Canada are honoured each year with the $65,000 Griffin Poetry Prize, one of the world's most prestigious and valuable literary awards. Since 2001 this annual prize has acted as a tremendous spur to interest in and recognition of poetry, focusing worldwide attention on the formidable talent of poets writing in English. And each year the editor of
The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology gathers the work of the extraordinary poets shortlisted for the awards and introduces us to some of the finest poems in their collections.
This year, editor and prize juror Tim Lilburn's selections from the international shortlist include poems from Adonis's
Selected Poems (Yale University Press), translated by Khaled Mattawa, Seamus Heaney's
Human Chain (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), François Jacqmin's
The Book of the Snow (Arc Publications), translated by Philip Mosley, and Gjertrud Schnackenberg's
Heavenly Questions (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). The selection from the Canadian shortlist includes poems from Dionne Brand's
Ossuaries (McClelland & Stewart), Suzanne Buffam's
The Irrationalist (House of Anansi Press), and John Steffler's
Lookout (McClelland & Stewart).
In choosing the 2011 shortlist, prize jurors Tim Lilburn, Colm Tóibín, and Chase Twichell considered 450 collections published in the previous year, including 20 translations from poets in 37 countries. The jury also wrote the citations that introduce the seven poets' nominated works.
Royalties generated from
The 2011 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology will be donated to UNESCO's World Poetry Day, which was created to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard in their communities.
>> Enter to win a copy of The 2011 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology in our June contest!
THIS PARTY'S GOT TO STOP
by
Rupert Thomson"Wonderfully dark, relentlessly slippery . . . I read this entire memoir with my breath held" -- Observer In his first venture into nonfiction, the celebrated novelist Rupert Thomson has produced one of the most extraordinary and unforgettable memoirs of recent years.
On a warm, sunny day in July 1964, Thomson returned home from school to discover that his mother had died suddenly while playing tennis. Twenty years later, Thomson and his brothers receive word that their father, who suffered chronic lung damage during the war, has died alone in hospital. In an attempt to come to terms both with their own loss and with their parents' legacies, the three brothers move back into their father's house. The time they spend in this decadent, anarchic commune leads to a rift between Thomson and his youngest brother, a rift that will not be addressed for more than two decades.
This Party's Got to Stop works Thomson's memories into a powerful mosaic that reveals the fragility of family life in graphic and often heartbreaking detail. It is both a love letter to a lost brother and a chronicle of the murderousness and longing that can characterize blood relationships.
