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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Toronto's Ken Babstock wins Griffin poetry prize
TORONTO -- Toronto's Ken Babstock and Britain's David Harsent are the winners of this year's Griffin poetry prizes, worth $65,000 apiece.
Babstock wiped away tears as he accepted the prize for his poetry collection Methodist Hatchet.
The 42-year-old admitted his career choice has been a tough slog at times and joked that he hopes his four-year-old son will read and love poetry but never write it for a living.
Harsent, who won the prize for his book called Night, called poetry a "marginal art" that's in need of prizes like the Griffin.
This is the 12th year for the lucrative award, created by businessman Scott Griffin along with trustees including authors Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje.
Guests at Thursday night's awards gala included Atwood, Ondaatje, and former media baron Conrad Black and his wife Barbara Amiel Black.
There was also Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney, who received the Griffin's lifetime achievement award.
-- The Canadian Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 9, 2012 G2
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