B.C. poet George McWhirter wins international $130,000 Griffin Poetry Prize with Mexican poet Homero Aridjis
Translator of Spanish-language poetry collection Self-Portrait in the Zone of Silence shares award with original author
B.C. poet George McWhirter (left), translator of Self-Portrait in the Zone of Silence, written in Spanish by Mexican poet Homero Aridjis.
A CEREMONY WAS HELD in Toronto last night (June 5) to announce the winner of this year’s international Griffin Poetry Prize, which was awarded to Canadian poet George McWhirter for his translation of Self-Portrait in the Zone of Silence (New Directions Publishing), written in Spanish by his longtime friend, Mexican poet Homero Aridjis.
The prestigious $130,000 prize is shared between the translator and original author, with 60 percent of the amount ($78,000) going to McWhirter and 40 percent ($52,000) to Aridjis.
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, McWhirter has been based in Vancouver since the 1970s and was named the city’s first Poet Laureate in 2007. An acclaimed writer, translator, editor, and teacher, he served as head of UBC’s creative writing department from 1983 to 1993, and is a member of the League of Canadian Poets, Writers’ Union of Canada, and PEN International. McWhirter’s first poetry book, 1971’s Catalan Poems, jointly won the first-ever Commonwealth Poetry Prize.
Aridjis, who was born in the Contepec municipality of Michoacán, Mexico, has authored an impressive total of 51 poetry books, many of which have won awards. He is the president emeritus of PEN International; former Mexican ambassador to Switzerland, the Netherlands, and UNESCO; and founder-president of artist-environmentalist association Group of 100.
A judges’ citation describes how Self-Portrait in the Zone of Silence encapsulates an “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.”
Maggie Burton, winner of the Canadian First Book Prize for Chores.
Two other Canadians took home titles at the awards as well.
St. John’s, Newfoundland-based poet Don McKay was honoured with the 2024 Lifetime Recognition Award for $25,000, nominated by the trustees of the international Griffin Poetry Prize. With an expansive Governor General’s Award-winning collection of poetry books to his name, including 1991’s Night Field and 2000’s Another Gravity, McKay has established himself as one of Canada’s most esteemed authors over the past five decades, and was named to the Order of Canada in 2009.
Another St. John’s-based poet, Maggie Burton, was awarded $10,000 for the Canadian First Book Prize along with a six-week residency in Umbria, Italy in partnership with the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. Burton is an established professional violinist and municipal politician, and is currently serving her second term as Councillor at Large for the City of St. John’s. Her first poetry collection, Chores (Breakwater Books), explores the domestic labour and sexuality of women through a queer, feminist, working-class lens.
Each of the other finalists for the prize were awarded $10,000. The shortlist included A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails (Arrowsmith Press) by Halyna Kruk, translated from Ukrainian by Amelia M. Glaser and Yuliya Ilchuk; To 2040 (Copper Canyon Press) by U.S. poet Jorie Graham; School of Instructions (Faber & Faber, and Farrar, Straus & Giroux) by Jamaican poet Ishion Hutchinson; and Door (Penguin Books) by U.S. poet Ann Lauterbach.
This year’s Griffin Poetry Prize was judged by U.S.–born Canadian poet Albert F. Moritz, German poet-essayist Jan Wagner, and American poet Anne Waldman. Each member of the panel read 592 books of poetry, including 49 translations from 22 languages, submitted by 235 publishers from 14 different countries.
The Griffin Poetry Prize, founded in 2000, is awarded to first-edition poetry books that are written in or translated into English. Submissions are accepted from publishers anywhere in the world, and will be accepted for the 2025 award until the end of this year. 
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