The Acorn-Plantos Award committee has announced the shortlist for the 2012 Acorn-Plantos Award for People’s Poetry.

The award is presented annually to a Canadian poet whose book follows in the “tradition of Acorn, Livesay, Purdy, Plantos and others by being accessible to all people in its use of language and image.”

The shortlist is:

• Tim Bowling, Tenderman (Nightwood Editions)
• Barry Dempster, Dying a Little (Wolsak & Wynn)
• Thelma Poirier, Rock Creek Blues (Coteau Books)
• Adam Pottle, Beautiful Mutants (Caitlin Press)
• Ann Scowcroft, The Truth of Houses (Brick Books)