QUILLBLOG

Canada’s 10 best poets?

The Griffin Poetry Prize will be given out this coming Wednesday, and there are three strong books in contention: Revolver by Kevin Connolly (House of Anansi Press), Crabwise to the Hounds by Jaramy Dodds (Coach House Press), and The Sentinel by A.F. Moritz (Anansi).

Over at the CBC, Barbara Carey thought this would be a good opportunity to choose the 10 best Canadian poets writing in English. The list is somewhat surprising, as much for who isn’t represented as for who is. Making the cut are Dodds, Ken Babstock, Erin Mouré (but – interestingly – not Erín Moure or Eirin Mouré), and Skydancer Louise Bernice Halfe, among others.

Not represented on Carey’s list are Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Leonard Cohen, George Bowering, Jan Zwicky, or George Elliott Clarke. This has, of course, prompted a flurry of comments about the relative significance of the MIAs, and the utility (or lack thereof) of such a list in the first place. Quillblog’s favourite, from TomVincent99: “Lists like this are an exercise in folly. Have fun sifting through 1001 ‘Oh, but you forgot so-and-so’ comments.” Now 1,002.