Book Description
The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology: A Selection of the 2003 Shortlist includes poems from the seven exceptional books shortlisted for the 2003 Griffin Poetry Prize. This annual anthology gathers together extraordinary poets and introduces us to some of the finest poems within their collections, work that is at the heart of language and that reminds us what it means to be human. The selections include poems from Kathleen Jamie's Mr and Mrs Scotland Are Dead: Poems 1980-1994, Paul Muldoon's Moy Sand and Gravel, Gerald Stern's American Sonnets: Poems, C. D. Wright's Steal Away: Selected and New Poems, Margaret Avison's Concrete and Wild Carrot, Dionne Brand's thirsty, and P. K. Page's Planet Earth: Poems Selected and New. Prize jurors Michael Longley, Sharon Olds, and Sharon Thesen chose the outstanding shortlist and wrote the citations that precede each anthology selection. Sharon Thesen chose the poems that appear in the anthology and wrote the introduction to the book, describing the joy and difficulty of being a juror and having to choose from among such richness. Royalties generated from this anthology will be donated to UNESCO's World Poetry Day.

About the Author
Sharon Thesen has published eight books of poetry, including A Pair of Scissors, which won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. She is an instructor at Capilano College and the editor of The Capilano Review. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The third volume of The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology includes selections from the books shortlisted for the 2003 Griffin Poetry Prize chosen by jurors Michael Longley, Sharon Olds, and Sharon Thesen. The Griffin Trust's support for poets, for poetry, and for the publishers of poetry includes two annual literary prizes, awarded for collections of poetry published in English during the preceding year. Past winners are Anne Carson (2001), Nicolai Popov and Heather McHugh, for their translations of Paul Celan (2001), Christian B￯﾿ﾽk (2002), and Alice Notley (2002).