British Columbia poet Jeremy Stewart has won this year’s Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry for his manuscript Hidden City. He receives a contract with Invisible Publishing’s Snare imprint and a $500 advance.

In a statement, award judge Ken Babstock says, “Hidden City could be any of our cities. It could be your town. It’s certainly one of the clattering, desperate voices we all carry around inside. This is a crackling, energetic, desperate suite of poems. Weird and worrying.”

Stewart was nominated for the prize in 2008 for his collection flood basement, which was published in 2009 by Caitlin Press.

Hidden City will be published in October.