B.C. writer Susan Musgrave named to The Griffin Poetry Prize 2023 shortlist
Haida Gwaii-based author of Exculpatory Lilies among five finalists vying for $130,000 prize
THE GRIFFIN POETRY PRIZE today announced its 2023 shortlist, and B.C. writer Susan Musgrave is among five finalists.
The Haida Gwaii-based author is being recognized for Exculpatory Lilies (McClelland & Stewart).
Musgrave, who runs a beach house and teaches at University of British Columbia’s Optional Residency School of Creative Writing, has published more than 30 books. She been nominated or received awards in six categories: poetry, novels, non-fiction, food writing, editing, and books for children.
Exculpatory Lilies is a collection of poems that plumb the depths of immense personal grief and sorrow and that exalt the beauty of loneliness and nature. Musgrave wrote the poems after the 2018 death of her third husband, writer Stephen Reid, and the 2021 death of their daughter. Sophie was 32 years old when she died of an accidental overdose in Vernon after a 20-year struggle with addiction.
“The sheer humanity and gift to show our fragile, broken selves is nothing less than prayer, as spoken in Musgrave’s Exculpatory Lilies,” the Griffin judges’ citation reads. “That she brings us to the sacred ground of loss and grief, and then lifts us toward our own humility is a ceremony. A ceremony wherein we must bow down our heads to the fragility of all we know, the darkness and light we all must carry.”
For this year’s shortlist, judges Nikola Madzirov (Macedonia), Gregory Scofield (Canada), and Natasha Trethewey (USA) each read 602 books of poetry, including 54 translations from 20 languages, submitted by 229 publishers from 20 different countries.
The four other finalists are: Robyn Creswell (USA) for The Threshold (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), translated from the Arabic written by Iman Mersal (Egypt/Canada); Ada Limón (USA) for The Hurting Kind (Corsair Poetry); Roger Reeves (USA) for Best Barbarian (W. W. Norton); and Ocean Vuong (Vietnam/USA) for Time Is a Mother (Cape Poetry and Penguin Press).
The winner will be announced at the Griffin Poetry Prize Readings on June 7 and will be awarded $130,000. The other finalists will each be awarded $10,000.
The event will be held at Toronto’s Koerner Hall and will include a selection of readings by the five shortlisted poets, this year’s Lifetime Recognition Award recipient, and the Canadian First Book Prize winner, who will be announced on May 17.
Below is one of the poems from Exculpatory Lilies.
“Hunger” by Susan Musgrave
When I go to the river with my trouble,
and sit under the big trees, I see my girl again.
Her dress is the colour of soft butter.
Her hunger tastes of whiskey and rain.
Behind us is darkness, and darkness lies ahead.
The worst kind of pain is to miss someone
you’ve never known, and worse, never will.
The emptiest days are loveliest; only
people with desires can be fooled,
and I have none.
Copyright © 2022 by Susan Musgrave, Exculpatory Lilies, McClelland & Stewart
More information about The Griffin Poetry Prize can be found here.
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