The Walrus Foundation announces the winners of 2013 Walrus Poetry Prize and launches a free ebook, The Best of Walrus Poetry

TORONTO, Nov. 7, 2013 /CNW/ - The Walrus Foundation is delighted to announce the winners of the second annual Walrus Poetry Prize and the launch of a free ebook, The Best of Walrus Poetry, both generously supported by the Hal Jackman Foundation.

Toronto's Kateri Lanthier accepted the $2,500 juried prize for her poem "The Coin Under the Leftmost Sliding Cup," and Brent Raycroft, of the Kingston area, won the $2,500 Readers' Choice Award for his poem "Scarecrow Maintenance." The juried award was selected blindly by Griffin Poetry Prize winner Ken Babstock, Gerald Lampert Award winner Katia Grubisic, and The Walrus's poetry editor, Michael Lista. The Readers' Choice Award winner was chosen by an online vote, based on a short list that the jury compiled.

Both winning poems are part of a special ebook, which we are excited to launch: The Best of Walrus Poetry, available for free download at thewalrus.ca/poetry-prize beginning on November 12.

The ebook features this year's and last year's winning poems alongside poetry selections from the magazine's vast archive, including works by Leonard Cohen, Paul Muldoon, P. K. Page, Lynn Crosbie, and Karen Solie. The poetry prize and the ebook, says Lista, "bring familiar and emerging voices both to the attention of our esteemed judges and to our vast and intellectually curious readership—a mutually enriching union of which I'm proud to be a part."

The generous support of the Hal Jackman Foundation has made the poetry prize and the ebook possible. In the prize's inaugural year, the foundation's president, Victoria Jackman, expressed her belief that "Canadian poetry deserves the position of prominence it enjoys in the pages of The Walrus." The Hal Jackman Foundation, she said, is proud to be part of an initiative that finds "new voices and admirers" for Canadian poetry.

For full details, to read the winning poems, and to download the free ebook on or after November 12, visit thewalrus.ca/poetry-prize.

SOURCE: The Walrus Foundation

For more information about the Walrus Poetry Prize, contact
Stephanie Damgaard, [phone], ext. 257 | [email protected]

For more information about Walrus Ebooks, contact
Nic Boshart, [phone], ext. 245 | [email protected]