Friends On The GG List!

I am very pleased to note that several very fine Canadian poets were today shortlisted for Canada's major national poetry prize - and that they are all, oddly, and for the first time on such a list, friends of mine. Gosh, I want them all to win!

The Canada Council for the Arts announces the 2012 Governor General’s Literary Award finalists

October 2, 2012 | News Release

Get ready to read the 2012 Governor General’s Literary Awards finalists. The Canada Council’s peer assessment committees selected this year’s finalists out of approximately 1,700 submitted books, choosing works that tell readers compelling stories about themselves and the world around them.

“Literary excellence is what drives the Governor General’s Literary Awards,” said Robert Sirman, Director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts. “This year’s shortlisted books put the creative talent of our authors, translators and illustrators front and centre. They inspire readers to discover new places and live memorable experiences through books.”

Poetry

Julie Bruck, San Francisco, CA (originally from Montréal), Monkey Ranch (Brick Books; distributed by LitDistCo) (ISBN 978-1-926829-74-6)
David McGimpsey, Montréal, Li’l Bastard(Coach House Books; distributed by LitDistCo) (ISBN 978-1-55245-248-6)
A. F. Moritz, Toronto, The New Measures(House of Anansi Press; distributed by HarperCollins Canada) (ISBN 978-1-77089-110-4)
Lisa Pasold, Toronto, Any Bright Horse(Frontenac House; distributed by Alpine Book Peddlers) (ISBN 978-1-897181-55-3)
James Pollock, Madison, WI (originally from Southern Ontario), Sailing to Babylon
(Able Muse Press; distributed by Ingram Book Company) (ISBN 978-0-9865338-7-7)

Comments

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

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