Montreal International Poetry Prize

Montreal International Poetry Prize
Country Canada
StatusActive
First award2011 (Launched)
Websitehttps://www.montrealpoetryprize.com

The Montreal International Poetry Prize (also known as The Montreal Prize) is a biennial poetry competition based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was launched in April 2011 during National Poetry Month.[1]

The competition invites online submissions of poems in English from anywhere in the world, and is adjudicated by a board of 10 international editors, which changes every competition, but the winner is selected by a single judge - in 2011, it was former British Poet Laureate Andrew Motion.[2] Subsequent judges have been Don Paterson in 2013, Eavan Boland in 2015, Michael Harris in 2017, Yusef Komunyakaa in 2020, Lorna Goodison in 2022, and A.E. Stallings in 2024.[3] Natalie  Diaz is the judge for the 2026 Montreal Prize.[4]

The $20,000 (CAD) prize is thought to be the world's largest monetary prize for a single poem.[5]

In addition to the winning poem, the Montreal Prize publishes, with Véhicule Press, the top 50 poems in a printed anthology.[6] The Véhicule Press poetry imprint, Signal Editions published The Global Poetry Anthology in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017. In 2011 and 2013 the Montreal Prize produced an electronic longlist anthology. In 2015 the Montreal Prize discontinued the long list anthology before starting it back up again, still with Véhicule Press, in 2020, 2022, and 2025.

The Department of English at McGill University manages the Montreal Prize as of 2018.[7]

Winners

Year Winner
2011 Mark Tredinnick
2013 Mia Anderson
2015 Eva H.D.
2017 Erin Rodoni
2020 Victoria Korth
2022 Claire Wahmanholm
2024 Kizziah Burton[8]

References

  1. ↑ John Lundberg (April 3, 2011). "National Poetry Month Highlighted In Two High-Profile Contests". Huffington Post. Retrieved April 7, 2011. National Poetry Month is here, and two newly announced poetry prizes are getting a lot of attention. You might even qualify to win one of them. The first annual Montreal International Poetry Prize awarded $50,000 for one winning poem.
  2. ↑ CBC.ca (March 29, 2011). "New Montreal Prize to award $50K for poetry". CBC News. Retrieved April 7, 2011. Organizers of the Montreal International Poetry Prize have enlisted former British poet laureate Andrew Motion to judge the inaugural edition of the Canadian-based competition.
  3. ↑ "2024 Competition". Montreal International Poetry Prize. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
  4. ↑ "2026 Competition". Montreal International Poetry Prize. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
  5. ↑ Jeff Heinrich (March 31, 2011). "Your key to winning $50,000? Pure poetry". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved April 7, 2011. We realized that there's nothing on that scale for just one poem. And so there was an opportunity there. And when we started to think of it globally, that's when we realized how unique it could be.
  6. ↑ CBC.ca (March 29, 2011). "New Montreal Prize to award $50K for poetry". CBC News. Retrieved April 7, 2011. Véhicule Press will publish two collections from the submissions: an e-book collection featuring the long-listed candidates and another global anthology (to be published in print and e-book) focusing on the finalists.
  7. ↑ "History". Montreal International Poetry Prize.
  8. ↑ Caputo, Andria. "Kizziah Burton Named 2024 Montreal Poetry Prize Winner". www.mcgill.ca.
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