Each year, Arc Poetry Magazine is proud
to honour Ottawa poets. We are pleased to present finalists for the Archibald Lampman Award
for the outstanding book of poetry published in 2015 by a National-Capital area
author. Also
featured are winners of the Diana Brebner Prize competition, which honours
emerging poets in the Ottawa area.
The readings will take place at Pressed, 750
Gladstone Ave, Ottawa, Ontario at 7:00pm on Tuesday, October 4 [Nicholas Lea
will not be in attendance].
The award is named in honour of Archibald
Lampman (1861 – 1899), one of Canada’s finest nineteenth-century poets. Lampman
moved to Ottawa in 1882, and much of his metaphysical nature poetry was
inspired by the National Capital region.
The
Archibald Lampman Award will be presented on October 19, at Ottawa City Hall,
in conjunction with the Ottawa
Book Awards.
Congratulations to the finalists and their publishers! Arc would also like to thank judges Liz
Howard, Shane Book and Sachiko Murakami.
The Lampman finalists are:
David
Groulx Wabigoon River Poems (Kegodonce Press,
Neyaashiinigmiing, 2015)
A
ferocious, erudite collection centred around an unflinching epic poem,
breathtaking in its wide-ranging look at oppression, revolution, and
survival.
A brilliant book of compact lyrics, where themes of
alienation and fragility meet dark humour and hope.
Pearl Pirie, the pet radish, shrunken: (BookThug, Toronto, 2015)
Pirie
rubs words until they spark and fume, turning the common into an uncommon
blaze. Every line is joyful in its eccentricities, and eminently re-readable as
it tumbles through language.
The event will also feature the finalists for the Diana
Brebner Prize, given for a poem by an emerging Ottawa-area poet not yet
published in book form. The 2015 winner of the Brebner Prize is Claire
Farley for her poem ‘NU’. Farley lives and works in Ottawa where she is the
co-founder and co-editor of the literary journal Canthius. The Brebner Honourable Mention went to Susan J.
Atkinson, whose poems have appeared in literary journals in the U.S. and Canada. She was
named one of the Hot Ottawa Voices by the Tree Reading Series.
For further information contact Arc Poetry Magazine at arc@arcpoetry.ca.
