City poet wins Gov.-Gen. award for poetry

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This article was published 09/11/2023 (1053 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg poet Hannah Green’s debut collection Xanax Cowboy, published in April by House of Anansi Press, has won the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry.

Green was announced as winner of the $25,000 poetry prize, along with winners in fiction, non-fiction, drama, translation and young people’s texts in both English and French, on Nov. 7.

“It’s still hard to believe — it’s really exciting to be the recipient of this award,” Green, 31, said after learning of the win. “It’s a big prize, and it was my first book. I’m still in a bit of shock.”

Green, who serves as poetry editor of Contemporary Verse 2 magazine and did a master of arts degree in English at Concordia University, was first approached by House of Anansi after being named a finalist for the RBC Bronwyn Wallace Award for emerging writers in 2021.

The jury for the poetry category of the Governor General’s Literary Awards noted that Xanax Cowboy “takes us on a grim and tender ride, exploring a journey through mental illness and addiction. Self-reflexive and contemporary in phrasing and sensibility, the book pairs, like the title itself, a dark coping mechanism of life with the bittersweet harrows of self-performance. Dazzling in its play with form, the book has an utterly original voice, hard-hitting, mordantly ironic, unsparing in its gaze on the self.”

The book’s name, which serves as Green’s writerly alter-ego, came to her quite randomly. “I was making an account to play competitive online solitaire and needed a username — the words just popped in my head,” she said, laughing.

And while Green is elated about winning the Governor General’s Literary Award, the reaction from readers has been equally rewarding. “It’s been exciting getting messages or emails from people saying ‘Hey, I read your book, I’ve had similar experiences, it was really great to read.’ That’s what breaks my heart in the most beautiful way — that intimate connection from like a single person.”

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Fellow House of Anansi author Anuja Varghese won the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction for her debut short-story collection Chrysalis, a collection that blends elements of Hindu folklore with modern diasporic life.

This year’s non-fiction prize went to Kyo Maclear for Unearthing: A Story of Tangled Love and Family Secrets, a memoir published by Knopf Canada about the author’s discovery that the dad who raised her was not her biological father.

Other winners include William Shakespeare’s As You Like It: A Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal in the drama category, The Probability of Everything by Sarah Everett in young people’s literature, text, and Jack Wong’s When You Can Swim in the young people’s illustrated books category.

—with files from The Canadian Press

ben.sigurdson@winnipegfreepress.com

@bensigurdson