George Bowering, Canada's first poet laureate, has been selected to judge one of the country's most distinguished poetry honours.

Organizers of the Griffin Poetry Prize have named the Vancouver-based poet and writer to its three-member jury, which will decide the winner of the 2008 prize.

Bowering, who served as Canada's inaugural poet laureate from 2002 until 2004, will be joined on the panel by London-born, New York-based poet and author James Lasdun and Mexican poet and translator Pura Lopez Colomé.

The two-part Griffin Poetry Prize awards $100,000 in total. An international and a Canadian winner are selected and each receives $50,000.

The jury will announce its short list of four international and three Canadian nominees in April, with the annual awards gala to follow in June.

Established by Toronto businessman and poetry enthusiast Scott Griffin, the Griffin counts authors Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje among its trustees and has grown to become one of the most esteemed Canadian literary honours.

Each year, organizers celebrate the shortlisted poets with a pre-awards reading and publishes an anthology of their work.