Sylvia Legris wins the Griffin Poetry Prize!

Sylvia Legris' Nerve Squall is the Canadian winner of the 2006 Griffin Poetry Prize, awarded last night at a ceremony in Toronto's Distillery District. Kamau Brathwaite won the international prize for his book, Born to Slow Horses (Wesleyan University Press). Congratulations to both winners, and to all the nominees!<!--newline--><!--newline-->Judges’ Citation<!--newline--><!--newline-->'Sylvia Legris’ high-octane poems are powered by "atmospheric overload". Her eye is that of the twenty-first century – zooming from satellite to microscope – but her focus and coherence are increasingly rare in this age. In her hands, language refracts in ways which break open etymology to bring us more sense rather than less. Legris’ poems build like chords from sub- to super-sonic and, even at their most rapid and heightened point, sustain the force of poetic enquiry. There is always, as she says, "something on your hook, you feel it".'