SUBMISSION RULES: Entries must come from publishers only. Inquiries about entries must also come from publishers only. Source: Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry.

Please note that the Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry is not a publishing company. If you are interested in learning more about companies around the world that publish poetry, we invite you to take a look at our Previous Submissions tab above, which features submitted entries to the Griffin Poetry Prize since the prize’s inception. Writers’ organizations and poetry associations often offer useful publishing resources and Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry provides links to some of them here.

• Publishers are welcome to enter an unlimited number of titles. Please download an Entry Form and a complete version of the Rules.
• The Griffin Poetry Prize is awarded annually in two categories — International and Canadian. Each prize is worth C$65,000. In each category, the prize is for the best collection of poetry in English published during the preceding year. One prize goes to a living Canadian poet or translator, the other to a living poet or translator from any country, which may include Canada. C$10,000 goes to each shortlisted poet who reads at the annual Griffin Poetry Prize Shortlist Readings in Toronto, Canada.
• To be eligible for the International prize, a book of poetry must be a first-edition collection (i.e. not previously published in any country), written in English, or translated into English, by a poet/translator from any part of the world, including Canada. To be eligible for the Canadian prize, a book of poetry must be a first-edition collection (i.e. not previously published in any country), written in English or translated into English by a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident in Canada.
• No self-published book is eligible. This requirement is consistent with major literary prizes around the world.
• Books must have been published in English during the calendar year preceding the year of the award.
• For the 2023 Griffin Poetry Prize, books must be published between January 1st and December 31st, 2022. The deadline for submissions for the 2023 Griffin Poetry Prize are: June 30, 2022 for books published between January 1, 2022 and June 30, 2022; December 31, 2022 for books published between July 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022.
• Note: The Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist is announced every year in April. The official shortlist is issued by the Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry via press release and the Griffin Poetry Prize’s social media channels, and is posted to the Griffin Poetry Prize website. From time to time, authors or publishers indicate that their works have been nominated for the prize, but what they are announcing is that their works have been submitted for prize consideration.

About Griffin Poetry Prize

Poetry is the essence of language, and language covers the full range of experience and emotion that distinguishes us as human beings. Poetry has been a form of nuanced and higher-level communication since the beginning of civilization.

While we may pay lip service to the importance of poetry throughout history, the tendency for most of us is to take its importance—in this technological age—for granted, fewer of us read it, purchase it, or recite it.  Poets will always write poetry, but poetry needs an audience in order for it to survive as a central part of the mainstream in our cultural lives.

I have my father to thank for his enduring love of poetry. He used to read it to us children after dinner: Browning, Macaulay, Eliot, and others from a long list of his favourites. His passion developed my life-long love affair and concern for poetry, evolving into the Griffin Poetry Prize.

The objective of the Griffin Poetry Prize is to raise the profile of poets and poetry in Canada, and internationally, for works written in, or translated into, English. To achieve this, we invite the shortlisted poets annually to Toronto for a two-day event, which entails the poets reading their poetry to an audience of over a thousand poetry enthusiasts, and the presentation of prizes.

The Griffin Trust, which funds the Griffin Poetry Prize, was founded in April 2000 by Margaret Atwood, Robert Hass, Michael Ondaatje, Robin Robertson, David Young, and myself.  The current trustees are:  Mark Doty, Carolyn Forché, Scott Griffin, Sarah Howe, Paul Muldoon, Karen Solie, Aleš Šteger, and Ian Williams.

Poetry Calendar

Somewhere in the world, every day, someone is writing poetry, reading poetry, encouraging and mentoring poetry, awarding recognition to poetry, presenting and celebrating poetry in new and unusual ways. Take a look at where and when and how poetry is happening. Send poetry-related dates or events you’d like to see on the ever-blossoming Griffin International Poetry Calendar. If you have an event you would like to be included in, please email details to editorialdirector@griffinpoetryprize.com.