Catalan poet shortlisted for prestigious Canadian poetry prize

Barcelona-born poet Gemma Gorga, has been shortlisted for the Griffin International poetry prize, Canada's most generous poetry award.

She has been nominated alongside American poet and translator Sharon Dolin for her poetry collection 'Late to the House of Words' which has been translated into English by Dolin, and offers readers the opportunity to become acquainted with the breadth of Gorga's work in lineated verse, which spans more than twenty years.

Born in 1968, Gemma Gorga has a PhD in Philology from the University of Barcelona, where she is Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Spanish Literature.

She has published seven collections of poetry in Catalan: 'Ocellania' (1977), 'El desordre de les mans' (2003), 'Instruments òptics' (2005), 'Llibre dels minuts' (2006) which won the 2006 literary Premi Miquel de Palol, 'Diafragma' (2012), 'Mur' (2015); and 'Viatge al centre' (2020).

She is also the author of a prose journal of her time spent in India entitled 'Indi visible' (2018).

The Griffin Trust was founded in April 2000 by Chairman Scott Griffin, along with Trustees Margaret Atwood, Robert Hass, Michael Ondaatje, Robin Robertson and David Young. The Griffin Trust’s support for poetry aims to spark the public's imagination and raise awareness of the crucial role that poetry plays in our cultural life.

While all those shortlisted receive a $10,000 Canadian prize, the two winners, one being a Canadian prize given to a living poet/translator, and the other an International prize given to a living poet/translator from any country in the world, will receive a $65,000 award once they are determined on June 15.