SEAMUS HEANEY has been shortlisted for the 2011 Griffin Poetry Prize award for his latest collection, Human Chain.
Heaney (71), is among the nominees for the international prize, which was won by Cork-born poet Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin for her collection The Sun-Fish last year.
Seven collections have been shortlisted for this year’s awards, which consist of a Canadian and an international prize. The 65,000 Canadian dollars (€47,000) prize is one of the most lucrative such awards.
This year’s judging panel, which includes Irish novelist Colm Toíbín, selected the seven finalists after reading 50 books of poetry, including 20 translations, from poets in 37 countries.
This year’s winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Toronto on June 1st.
Human Chain, Heaney’s 12th poetry collection, was recently awarded the Irish Times Poetry Now Award. It also won Britain’s most valuable award, the £10,000 (€11,000) Forward Prize last October and was shortlisted for the 2010 TS Eliot award.
Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 and won two Whitbread prizes, in 1996 and 1999.
Griffin prize shortlists
International Shortlist
Seamus HeaneyHuman Chain
Khaled Mattawa Adonis:Selected Poems, (translated from Arabic, written by Adonis)
Philip MosleyThe Book of the Snow translated by Philip Mosley from the French written by François Jacqmin
Gjertrud SchnackenbergHeavenly Questions
Canadian Shortlist
Dionne BrandOssuaries
Suzanne Buffam The Irrationalist
John Steffler Lookout
