The has recently announced Texas poet, Kizziah Burton, as the winner of the 2024 Prize, for her poem 鈥�.鈥�
Burton鈥檚 poem was characterized as 鈥渁rresting, personal, political and prophetic鈥� by Professor Eli MacLaren, who oversees and directs the running of the prize
鈥淚t moves stepwise into disaster, through action and association, suggesting an all-too-common story of the death of a daughter,鈥� says MacLaren. 鈥淭here is a stranger, a stalker, injury, drugs, drowning, in a confusing and chilling succession 鈥� but as the poem descends into this darkness, it changes. As the title explains, it is a retelling of the Greek myth of Demeter, who searched for her daughter Persephone in the underworld.鈥�
鈥淚f news and communications of every kind fly at us on a daily basis, like debris on the wind, 鈥楶ortrait of Me鈥� is a massive stillness in which we become aware of something like the depth of the earth,鈥� says Professor MacLaren. 鈥淔eel grief, this poem instructs us; know love. In choosing Burton鈥檚 elegy to win the 2024 Montreal Prize, the final judge, A.E. Stallings, Oxford Professor of Poetry, has given us a challenge and a puzzle, in effect saying: slow down, sympathize, see another鈥檚 pain.鈥�
The Montreal prize awards one prize of $20,000 CAD to a poet for a single poem of 40 or fewer lines. The biennial prize is housed within the Department of English at the Faculty of Arts and builds community through poetry.
鈥淥ver a year鈥檚 work is concentrated in this award, and thanks go to the stalwart committee members for seeing it through to completion,鈥� adds Maclaren.
The 2024 jury was selected by Sarah Wolfson, poet and course instructor at the 海角社区 Writing Centre, and PhD Students Jeremy Desjarlais and Martin Breul.
Professor Carmen Mathes and PhD student Jay Ritchie led brilliant discussions of the jurors鈥� work at monthly meetings of undergraduate volunteers throughout the year and during the Winter 2024 semester the Prize鈥檚 committee helped host a second edition of Fluid Vessels, the Prize鈥檚 online international reading series which features the works of the jury members.
Although the next prize will be administered in 2026, poetry enthusiasts can look forward to the next suite of events in the Fluid Vessels speaker series which will feature some of the finalists of the 2024 prize, as well as the forthcoming publication of The Montreal Poetry Prize Anthology 2024, under the Signal Editions imprint of V茅hicule Press in Spring 2025.
To receive news on future events follow the Montreal Prize on and @montrealprize on Instagram.