TORONTO - Toronto poet Dionne Brand won the $65,000 Griffin Poetry Prize on Wednesday night, thanking everyone from Bob Marley to William Shakespeare in the process.
"I have to say, Dionne, that I'm impressed with your friends!" joked prize founder Scott Griffin as Brand wrapped up her expansive acceptance speech at the downtown awards gala.
This is the 11th year for the award, which honours one Canadian and one international poet. Organizers tout the Griffin as the world's richest poetry prize.
American poet Gjertrud Schnackenberg nabbed the international prize, also worth $65,000, for her collection "Heavenly Questions" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
"You deserve a prize," she said to Griffin. "Thank you for your outrageous sense of generosity and the sense of fun that you bring to poetry."
Brand -- who won the Governor General's Award for poetry in 1997 -- received the Griffin for "Ossuaries" (McClelland & Stewart), a novel-length narrative told through poetry.
"Are you sure?" she asked after her name was called out. "Oh man! This is so lovely. Scott, what can I say? You can fling me around the dance floor."
In an interview afterwards, she was more reflective.
"It means a great deal to me because it means that what I've been sort of doing in my room for any number of decades has found a kind of affinity somewhere," said Brand.
It was Brand's second Griffin nomination; she was up for the award in 2003 for "thirsty," which won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and was also a finalist for the Trillium Book Award.
Other poets shortlisted for the Canadian Griffin prize were Vancouver-raised Suzanne Buffam and John Steffler of Corner Brook, N.L.
Competing against Schnackenberg for the international prize were Nobel Prize winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney and Syrian poet Adonis (both of whom were not in attendance Wednesday), along with Francois Jacqmin of Belgium.
Griffin judges Tim Lilburn, Colm Toibin and Chase Twichell sifted through 450 submissions from 37 different countries, and the works included entries translated from more than 20 different languages.
Griffin created the prize in 2000 along with trustees including writers Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje. Each finalist also receives $10,000 for participating in readings the night before the prize gala.
The awards bash is a casual affair held in the city's downtown Distillery District. Attendees at this year's party included Ondaatje, Toibin, Michael Winter, Leon Rooke and Jane Urquhart. The menu at the ceremony included lamb with saffron rice, red lentils and spiced carrots with coriander sauce.
The Griffin has been lauded for helping shine a spotlight on poetry and the prize money can represent a king's ransom to writers who largely toil in obscurity.
French poet Yves Bonnefoy, who got a lifetime recognition award at Wednesday's ceremony, praised Griffin organizers.
"I was very happy to see that this very interesting foundation was existing in Canada," he said.
Said Brand: "(The prize) is like manna falling from the skies for poets who toil endlessly trying to make up this language that tries to reach out to the world."
Last year's winners were Saskatchewan native Karen Solie and Ireland's Eilean Ni Chuilleanain.
Each year, the Griffin Poetry Prize publishes an anthology, a selection of poems from the shortlisted books, published by House of Anansi Press. Royalties from the Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology are donated to UNESCO's World Poetry Day.
