Friday, November 02, 2007

Arc Poetry Magazine Honours Poets of the National Capital Region

Arc Poetry Magazine is pleased to announce the winners of two important competitions that recognize the accomplishments of poets living in the National Capital Region: the Lampman-Scott Award, which recognizes an outstanding book of English-language poetry, and the Diana Brebner prize, which recognizes the work of an emerging poet.

In 2007, the Lampman-Scott Award was inaugurated with the merger of the Archibald Lampman Award and the Duncan Campbell Scott Foundation. This new award honours the poetry and friendship of two great confederation poets--Archibald Lampman and Duncan Campbell Scott. The merger has also allowed Arc to increase the award from $1,000 to $1,500.

This year, 10 titles by local poets contended for the award. The winner of the 2007 award is Monty Reid for his book Disappointment Island (Chaudiere Books). Reid has won the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry three times and is also a three-time Governor General's Award nominee. He spent nearly 20 years working at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta, in the heart of the Alberta badlands, before moving to the Ottawa area in 1999 to work at the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Jurors Sue Sinclair, Steve Guppy and Tonja Gunvaldsen Klaassen praised Reid for his "arresting metaphoric insights, which he often delivers in a disarmingly casual voice, the effect being that of an everyday world primed for the unexpected." They characterized his poems as "tinged with an appealing lyric sadness--they are 'drawn to the erotic murmur of material things' but simultaneously concede the ineluctable mystery of the various landscapes into which they travel."

The honourable mention for the Lampman-Scott Award for Poetry goes to Sylvia Adams, for her book Sleeping on the Moon (Hagios Press). Adams is a past winner of Arc Poetry Magazine's Diana Brebner Prize for Poetry.

The 2007 winner of the $500 Diana Brebner prize is Guy Simser for his poem "Withdrawal". Judge Stephen Brockwell writes that "'Withdrawal' proves animportant point about good poetry: much can be said with a few simple words." Brockwell adds that there is "nothing ostentatious or showy about 'Withdrawal'; there's no attempt to draw attention to form or content. The poem confidently speaks for itself having lost all trace of its author. 'Withdrawal' is sparse, careful, political and quietly aware of the presence of the past."

Honourable mention for the 2007 Diana Brebner prize goes to L.M. Rochefort for her poem "(W)hole". Of this work Brockwell writes "'(W)hole' is unapologetically--and pleasantly--ostentatious and showy. It revels in play with negation and affirmation."

Arc wishes to congratulate all winners, judges, and to thank everyone who took part in these competitions. Diana Brebner Prize winning poems will be published in Arc Poetry Magazine Issue #59, Winter 2007, which will be released in December 2007.

For more information:

Diana Brebner Prize
<http://www.arcpoetry.ca/mag/contests/diana_brebner_prize.php">

Lampman-Scott Award
<http://www.arcpoetry.ca/mag/contests/lampmanscott_award.php>

Arc Poetry Magazine
P.O. Box 81060
Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada, K1P 1B1

arc@arcpoetry.ca
<http://www.arcpoetry.ca/>

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