Words At Large

This week's podcast features the three home-grown poets nominated for one of the world's most well-heeled literary awards. There are two categories in the Griffin Poetry Prize: one for a Canadian poet and the other for an international writer. Both winners will be announced on June 4 and will receive $50,000.

The podcast has archival interviews with the three Canadian nominees: Robin Blaser, David McFadden and Nicole Brossard.

The Vancouver poet Robin Blaser has already been honoured by the Griffin Trust, with a lifetime achievement award in 2006. His new book is The Holy Forest: Collected Poems of Robin Blaser (University of California Press). A conference was held in Vancouver in 1995 to pay tribute to Blaser on his 70th birthday. Blaser spoke to CBC host Vicki Gabereau just before this grand celebration.

David McFadden began writing poetry and publishing in well-known literary magazines as a high school student in Hamilton. He now lives in Toronto. Why Are You So Sad (Imsomniac Press and 4 a.m. Books) is a selection of writing from the almost two dozen collections he has published over the past five decades. Listen to an interview with Don Harron recorded 30 years ago for CBC Radio's Morningside.

Nicole Brossard's latest collection, Notebooks of Roses and Civilization (Coach House Books), is translated by Robert Majzels and Erin Mouré. Based in Montreal, Brossard is a literary giant in Quebec. She has published more than 30 books and has won the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry twice. An active feminist, she has founded literary and feminist journals and co-directed a film called Some American Feminists. Listen to Brossard in a 1995 conversation with Eleanor Wachtel.

Download the podcast or listen here:

For a round-up of all the poets and their books, read Barbara Carey's article.