Every two years, the awards $20,000 for a single un-published poem. The prize features a jury of internationally reputed poets and critics who shortlist approximately 60 poems among the many submissions they receive. Since its foundation, the Prize has featured prominent and illustrious judges from the poetry world such as Andrew Motion, former Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Lorna Goodison and Don Patterson, both recipients of the Queen鈥檚 Gold Medal for Poetry, and the late Eavan Boland.
This year鈥檚 winner of the coveted prize is , which can be easily read via the Montreal International Poetry Prize , along with shortlisted poems.聽
The Foundations of the Poetry Prize
Founded in Montreal in 2010 by poet Asa Boxer (MA鈥�04), the management of the Prize was transferred to 91社区鈥檚 Department of English in 2019 when Boxer sought to give the Prize an institutional footing. Since then, Professor Eli MacLaren serves as the Prize鈥檚 director and enlists the help of students from the Department of English to assist in various tasks to support the prize, such as running and managing the Prize鈥檚 social media channels, inviting poets to act as jury members, liaising with jury members, and organizing poetry readings.
The Prize is not only an opportunity to affirm the value of poetry in the contemporary world, as MacLaren states, but it also enhances 91社区鈥檚 long-standing reputation as a centre of poetry, encourages contemporary poets working in the English language in Canada and abroad and it offers students valuable work experience in administering a literary prize.
Student Commitment to Poetry
This year, the Prize was assisted by three students: Martin Breul, PhD candidate in English; Jeremy Desjarlais, PhD candidate in English focussing on Canadian and Indigenous long poetry; and Lizzie Schulz, a final year undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor of Arts and Science in English Literature and Molecular Biology.
All three students share a passion for poetry, and a drive to share poetry and its many meanings with a variety of audiences.
The 2022 competition saw the inauguration of 鈥淔luid Vessels鈥� an accompanying reading series that featured readings from the prize jury. Organized by Martin Breul, 鈥淔luid Vessels鈥� aims to showcase the work of established and emerging poets. Featuring writers from the U.K., Canada, the U.S., India, Nigeria and Australia, the series was an important and successful way for the judge and jury to introduce themselves and their work to the public.
鈥淚t offered a wonderful opportunity to connect poets across the world and to discuss poetic creativity,鈥� says MacLaren.
Martin echoes these sentiments. 鈥淔ostering international exchange is important to signal to local poetic communities and individual writers around the world that they are part of a larger artistic movement that is far from marginal or insignificant, but vibrant and powerful on its own terms,鈥� says Breul.
For PhD Student Jeremy Desjarlais, working on the Prize gave him the opportunity to collaborate with his dissertation supervisor, Eli Maclaren, outside of a scholarly context, and further immerse himself in his long-standing appreciation of poetry. During his time working on the Prize, Desjarlais liaised regularly with the jury members, and hosted one of the public readings for the 鈥淔luid Vessels鈥� series.
鈥淚 have read poetry since I was a young teenager and felt compelled to formally study it from the earliest years of my undergraduate degree,鈥� says Jeremy. 鈥淧oetry has been a ubiquitous feature of my scholarly work and research and working with the Prize is an extension of my commitment to the practice.鈥�
The Prize鈥檚 greatest strength, according to Jeremy, is its ability to democratize access to poetry and to bring it directly to all participants. Indeed, over the years, the Prize has shown a consistent commitment to building an international readership and encouraging the creation of original works of poetry, which can be easily accessed via the Prize鈥檚 website and through recordings of poetry readings.
The international character of the prize is a source of pride for both its director and the students involved in its organization, and rightfully so. The Prize鈥檚 ability to reach an international readership and a first-class selection of judges and jury members from across the world is a testament to poetry鈥檚 ability to bring people and their seemingly disparate worlds together.
鈥淩eading is a way to travel,鈥� says MacLaren. 鈥淚t is an environmentally friendly way to gain what travel offers, a fresh perspective. It is wonderful to create ties across borders through poetry to see how others view the world.鈥�
The Importance of Poetry
While many might equate poetry with the expression of personal feelings, ecological concerns expressed through poetry is also one of the many ways in which poetry can reflect political, scientific, and social concerns.
As an interdisciplinary student in Molecular Biology and English Literature, Lizzie Schulz brings a refreshing perspective on the importance of poetry.
鈥淚鈥檓 particularly interested in how we can use poetry to communicate more scientific topics,鈥� says Lizzie. 鈥淗ow can we use poetic techniques to communicate complicated scientific ideas? How can poetry distill the sensation of something bodily more viscerally than a scientific profile?鈥�
These questions are worth exploring, not only in a scientific dialogue, but in a poetic one as well. 鈥淥ne poem I love that exemplifies this is 鈥楬eart transplant鈥� by the Czech poet and immunologist ,鈥� says Lizzie. 鈥淧ersonally, I鈥檝e gained a deeper appreciation for poetry and a wider knowledge of it through working on the Prize.鈥�
In the words of 2022 Judge Lorna Goodison, the Wahmanholm鈥檚 winning poem, 鈥淕lacier鈥�, 鈥渋s a cri de coeur for planet Earth.鈥� Drawing on the poetic traditions of the lament and the praise song, Wahmanholm makes an arresting plea to save the world from the harmful effects of global warming, showcasing how important poetry can be in giving us different ways to explore difficult or important topics.
鈥淭he hardest thing about poetry is its originality,鈥� says MacLaren. 鈥淚t challenges the reader to think by using language in transformative ways鈥� A poem invites us to imagine and reflect, through figurative language.鈥�
Imagination and reflection are perhaps humanity鈥檚 oldest pastimes and a way of adventuring into the hereto unexplored facets of human life. All this is possible through poetry.
To learn more about poetry at 91社区, check out the Poetry Matters program which hosts lectures, poetry readings and poetry workshops at 91社区.聽