March 2003

Subject: No English-language nominees for new Trillium poetry prize 

Background: The new Trillium Book Prize for Poetry, worth $10,000 for a debut poetry title, will be awarded only in French this year. No English-language titles were named as finalists for the inaugural prize. "The English jury unfortunately decided that none of [the submitted titles] stood out enough to receive an award of excellence this year," says Janet Hawkins, publishing consultant at the Ontario Media Development Corporation, which sponsors the award. The French-language jury shortlisted two titles.

To: David Tsubouchi, Ontario Minister of Culture
Marcelle Lean, ODBC Chair
Sheri Wilson, ODBC Communications Director

We are among many members of the Canadian literary community who are outraged by the Trillium jury's decision to withhold the inaugural Trillium Prize for Poetry in English. The creation of this prize was only announced late last year, under the premise voiced by the chair of OMDC that "By providing support to first-time poets we can discover and celebrate new and original voices." By instead claiming that no Ontario poets "stand out" enough to be worthy of the award, the OMDC and the Government of Ontario are brutally undermining their originally admirable intentions.

It is especially alarming that this was to be the first year the prize was awarded. The first presentation of the Trillium Prize for Poetry should have been a reason for the literary community, the Government of Ontario and the people of Ontario to celebrate, but instead we are given the vague and discouraging statement that "none of [the submitted titles] stood out enough to receive an award of excellence this year."

And yet poetry is thriving: booksellers and publishers agree that sales and interest have reached a level in this past year that has not been seen in a long, long time. Book publishers, magazine publishers and English departments have worked very hard with our governments to encourage young writers to pursue the culturally enriching art of poetry. We were all ecstatic about the launch of the Trillium Prize for Poetry last fall, and when today we should be celebrating even more after the announcement of the first-ever shortlist, instead we are left to be disappointed and confused. This is a setback to a vital community that, to the contrary of the jury's comments, has been growing in numbers and in excellence.

Perhaps the first-time jury failed to recognize that debut collections generally cannot be expected to measure up to the same standards of books written by longtime, award-winning poets. Perhaps the award was not promoted sufficiently to draw the submissions of all the fine poetry collections by Ontario authors that have been published in the past year. Either way, it establishes an extremely unfortunate and disturbing precedent to proclaim that no emerging first-time poets from the past year sufficiently met some invisible standard of "excellence" that in all fairness will have to loom over all the up-and-coming poets in years to come. This jury's decision soundly defeats the honourable purpose and spirit of the award, which would have been respected by a simple decision to present the prize to the debut poetry collection by an Ontario author that they felt was the best of 2002.

Speaking of precedents, the Trillium Book Award has a proud and admirable history of always selecting both an English and French (in years when the French component existed) recipient, ever since 1987. Those prizes were awarded to the titles deemed by the juries to be the best of all the books submitted in those years, surely with no hypothetical, gratuitous level of consideration comparing the titles to those submitted in other years, or to some invisible qualitative standard. The Trillium should be proud of its colourful 16-year lineup of award-winning authors and their diversity in genre, style, experimentation, content and levels of development.

It is unacceptable that the OMDC and Government of Ontario upheld such a decision to mar and undermine an award for which we've all had such high hopes. Considering that the number of eligible titles must be few enough that they could be read within a week, and the number of knowledgeable and
nurturing members of the poetry community is many, we urge the OMDC and Government of Ontario to immediately mobilize a new jury to decide on a shortlist and winner of the first Trillium Prize for Poetry by the awards ceremony on April 23. With surely no more than 5-15 collections eligible for this award, the timeline is highly reasonable. Furthermore, if the judging budget has been exhausted there are undoubtedly many esteemed poets, editors, professors and critics who would contribute their time and
expertise on a volunteer basis to save face for the Trillium Prize and for poetry in this province. Please act as soon as possible to reverse the jury's regrettable and digressive decision.

Silas White, Managing Editor and Director of Nightwood Editions