Dawn Macdonald won the C$10,000 (about US$7,215) Canadian First Book Prize, awarded annually by the Griffin Poetry Prize, for Northerny. The prize also includes a six-week residency in Italy in partnership with the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. Burton will be invited to read from her book at this year's Griffin Poetry Prize readings on June 4 in Toronto.
The judges called Northerny "a blast of crisp Yukon air. Funny and fresh, unexpected and daring, it understands 'the personal is heretical,' and glories in that fact. It's a rush, a relief, and remakes with impishness the notion of what a poem can be."
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Finalists have been selected for the 2025 Firecracker Awards, sponsored by the Community of Literary Magazines & Presses and given to "the best independently published books of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry and the best literary magazines in the categories of debut and general excellence." Each winner in the books category will receive $2,000--$1,000 for the press and $1,000 for the author or translator--and each winner in the magazine categories will receive $1,000. The winners will be announced on June 26.
See finalists in the five categories here.