Canadian translator George McWhirter has made the shortlist for the Griffin Poetry Prize. He is recognized for Self-Portrait in the Zone of Silence, which was translated from Spanish and written by the great Mexican poet Homero Aridjis.

The $130,000 prize is the world’s largest prize for a single book of poetry written in or translated into English.

Read the full story here. And click here for the official Griffin Prize page with Homero Aridjis’s title poem transported into English and more information about both Aridjis and George.

I feel entitled to call McWhirter by his first name since he was my mentor in the MFA program at University of British Columbia and has remained a good friend. I provided a taste of his work in a post many years ago (see here), but what is needed is a capacious George McWhirter: Selected Poems. George himself has resisted my suggestion for as long as I’ve been repeating it. But somehow, anyhow, his lovely poetry needs to cross the 49th parallel southward into the American poetic consciousness. May he win the Griffin Prize if for no other reason than to help satisfy that desire of mine!