The Department of English is home to the Montreal International Poetry Prize, a non-profit initiative centred on the art of the poem. Faculty members and students collaborate to run the prize, to which writers from around the world submit their original work. Leading poets evaluate the entries, and the winner receives a cash prize of $20,000.
The Montreal International Poetry Prize
The Montreal International Poetry Prize concentrates the energy of contemporary poetry in the Department of English at 91丝瓜视频, adding to the university鈥檚 longstanding role as a centre for the writing, editing, reading, and discussion of poetry. The Montreal Prize runs every two years, awarding one prize of $20,000 CAD to an original English-language poem of forty lines or fewer. Professors, instructors, administrators, donors, graduate students, and undergraduates come together to carry out the many tasks involved in offering a world-class literary competition to the world鈥檚 writers. In the process, they affirm the poem as a way to know the world.
The prize is a public-facing, non-profit activity that combines research in poetics, contemporary writing, and world literary culture with events such as readings and book launches that connect authors, readers, and students. The prize operates as a going concern in which there is always another way to get involved 鈥� by identifying a good poet for the next jury, reviewing a new collection of poetry, spreading the word through social media, uploading an audio file of a poet reading, making a donation, designing an advertisement for the Times Literary Supplement, organizing an online reading, and above all by thinking about the form and meaning of the next new poem. Through these activities, working poets benefit from the attention paid to their work. The prize creates employment and volunteer opportunities centred on arts entrepreneurship and arts advocacy. It is a channel for alumni and other donors to support the university. To build community through poetry is the goal.
Committee
The Montreal Prize is administered by a committee of 91丝瓜视频 professors, instructors, staff, and students appointed by the director, who is a faculty member of the Department of English. A paid graduate-student operations manager plays an indispensable role in overseeing each two-year cycle. Graduate and undergraduate student volunteers meet on a monthly basis through the academic year to advance the work of the prize in diverse ways. Every meeting begins with the reading and discussion of a poem. Formally the Montreal Prize is an asset of the Faculty of Arts and belongs to the university鈥檚 operations as a registered charity.
Jury and Judging
The competition is adjudicated by a jury of twelve poets or scholars and one judge. The committee invites them to participate the summer before the competition. Their names and bios are posted on the prize website. After the competition closes, entries are divided among the jurors, who have eight weeks to select the finalists. The finalists are then forwarded to the judge, who chooses the one winner for the prize of $20,000. The names of the finalists and winner are rolled out on social media and the website of the Montreal Prize. Recent judges have been A.E. Stallings, Lorna Goodison, and Yusuf Komunyakaa.
Anthology
Each prize cycle culminates with the publication of The Montreal Poetry Prize Anthology by V茅hicule Press of Montreal. Publication takes place in April in odd-numbered years.
Fluid Vessels
Fluid Vessels is the online reading series of the Montreal Prize, in which jurors and finalists share their work and answer questions from the public. Fluid Vessels was created by Martin Breul, who served as operations manager from 2021 to 2025, as another way for the Montreal Prize to support the poetry community beyond celebrating a single winning poem. Recordings may be found online through the website of the Montreal Prize.
History
The Montreal Prize was created in 2010 by poet and critic Asa Boxer, with the assistance of Peter Abramowicz and Len Epp, who registered it as a non-profit organization. In 2019, Boxer transferred it to the Faculty of Arts at 91丝瓜视频, with the help of Professors Michael Nicholson, Miranda Hickman, and Trevor Ponech. Since then, the Directors of the Montreal Prize have been Eli MacLaren (2020鈥�25) and Carmen Mathes (2025鈥�).
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