Gerald Lampert Award

Inheritance has been shortlisted for the 2015 Gerald Lampert Award for best first book of poetry. I’m really delighted to see my brilliant friend Stevie Howell there as well. I wouldn’t want to be on a list that didn’t have her name on it too! Congratulations to all the nominees. There were write-ups about the awards in The Toronto Star as well as in Quill and Quire. Here’s what the judges had to say about my book:

Judges’ Comments:

When you read this book you sense you are always in the middle of it, wherever you may be. The poems poise eloquently then capsize on line, image, story, but maintain the keel enough to allow you to feel you’re participating in the ongoing discovery of something essential about the human condition. It’s as though the poems galvanize to create between them the emotional force of a novel. Inheritance is like an invitation to a field party where Powell begins to relate enthralling, candid, heartbreaking stories you weren’t ready to hear. The atmosphere was more than you were prepared for. But while you pause to process this new air to breathe, Powell’s grown restless and wandered off to throw more pallets onto the bonfire.