George McWhirter, Homero Aridjis

Vancouver-based Irish-Canadian poet, translator, editor, and teacher George McWhirter has won the Griffin Poetry Prize for his English translation of Mexican poet Homero Aridjis’s Self-Portrait in the Zone of Silence.

The winning book was announced at an event in Toronto on June 5.

Self-Portrait in the Zone of Silence, published last year by New Directions Publishing, was one of five books shortlisted for this year’s $130,000 Griffin Poetry Prize. The two writers will share the prize money, with 60 per cent ($78,000) going to McWhirter and 40 per cent ($52,000) to Aridjis, as per the prize rules.

In their citation, the jury said the collection “brings poet-translator George McWhirter’s adept English to the service of a great world-poet, Homero Aridjis. The book’s enchanting variety of tones and subjects expresses a rounded human being engaged with our total experience, from the familial to the political, from bodily sensations to dream, vision, philosophic thought, and history, from hope to foreboding.”

The other finalists — American and Ukrainian translators Amelia M. Glaser and Yuliya Ilchuk and Ukrainian poet Halyna Kruk; American poet Jorie Graham; Jamaican poet Ishion Hutchinson; and American poet Ann Lauterbach – each receive $10,000.

The winner, finalists, and longlisted poets of this year’s prize were chosen by a jury comprised of Canadian poet Albert F. Moritz, German poet Jan Wagner, and American poet Anne Waldman. They read 592 books of poetry, including 49 translations from 22 languages, submitted by 235 publishers from 14 different countries.

Also honoured at Wednesday’s event were 2024 Lifetime Recognition Award winner Don McKay and Canadian First Book Award winner Maggie Burton, both of whom live in Newfoundland.