British Columbia doctor-turned-writer Tolu Oloruntoba says he feels “seen” after winning the Griffin Poetry Prize for a debut book that took years to write.
Oloruntoba was named the Canadian winner of the $65,000 honor during an online ceremony Wednesday for “The Junta of Happenstance.”
The Surrey-based blacksmith said the announcement came amid his family’s morning routine. After a long hug, Oloruntoba prepared her children’s lunches and sent them to school.
It was a more intimate celebration than the typical fanfare that takes place at the Griffin’s annual party in Toronto, which was a virtual event this year due to the pandemic.
Although he’s not usually a fan of speeches, Oloruntoba said he would have thanked his literary peers for vindicating his winding 20-year journey to perfect his craft.
“It makes me feel like I’m being seen,” Oloruntoba, 36, said by phone Wednesday. “That’s really the gratification of this work, knowing that my testimony has been received, knowing that I’ve been heard, and knowing that, in some way, I’ve left something for someone.”
“The Junta of Happenstance”, published by Anstruther Books, is billed as a “collection of illnesses” that explores disease, immigration and colonialism.
In their citation, Griffin’s jurors said “exquisite poems leave an imprint that is both violent and terrifyingly beautiful”.
The international prize, also worth $65,000, went to “Sho,” by St. Paul, Minnesota-based word editor Douglas Kearney of Wave Books.
Oloruntoba began his career as a primary care physician in Nigeria before moving to the United States for post-graduate studies and eventually settling in Metro Vancouver to work as a healthcare manager.
Poetry has been a constant throughout this peripatetic journey, Oloruntoba said. In the early 2010s, he began shopping for a manuscript for what he hoped would be his debut as a publisher.
Looking back, Oloruntoba said he was grateful for the rejection. Without a formal literary education, Oloruntoba pursued what he calls an “MFA public library”, voraciously reading other poets while cultivating his own style through trial and error.
“Telling something can feel like there was a deliberate attempt to forge a certain path, but I stumbled through it,” he said. “I liked the sense of accomplishment I felt when I finished a poem, so I kept going.”
The skills and experiences he acquired will culminate in “The Junta of Happenstance,” which won the English-language poetry prize at the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Awards, making Oloruntoba a name to watch on the Canadian literary scene. .
His chapbook, “Manubrium”, was shortlisted for the bpNichol Chapbook Award 2020. His poetry was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications such as Harvard Divinity Bulletin, PRISM International, and Columbia Journal, and her second collection, “Each One a Furnace,” was published by McClelland & Stewart in March.
Rather than pursuing literary achievement, Oloruntoba advised aspiring writers to be content with the “experimental” process of writing.
“For me, success is writing a poem and getting it out of my system. Everything that followed was a nice bonus,” he said. “I’m just going to encourage them to keep doing the work. The work is very essential to our humanity.”
Canadian finalists were Montreal’s David Bradford for “Dream of No One But Myself,” published by Brick Books, and Toronto-based 2016 Griffin Prize winner Liz Howard for McClelland & Stewart’s “Letters in a Bruised Cosmos.”
Also in the running for the international prize: Ali Kinsella and Dzvinia Orlowsky’s translation of “Eccentric Days of Hope and Sorrow” by Ukrainian poet Natalka Bilotserkivets, published by Lost Horse Press; Chicago writer Ed Roberson for “Asked What Has Changed,” from Wesleyan University Press; and “Late to the House of Words”, Sharon Dolin’s translation of the Catalan work by Gemma Gorga from Barcelona, published by Saturnalia Books.
Each finalist received $10,000.
The nominees were selected from 639 books of poetry submitted by 236 publishers from 16 different countries, according to the prize organizers. This year’s jury is made up of Canadian writer Adam Dickinson, Belarusian poet Valzhyna Mort and American poet and playwright Claudia Rankine.
The Griffin is billed as the world’s largest prize for a first edition poetry book written or translated into English.
The Griffin Trust was founded in 2000 by Chairman Scott Griffin, along with trustees Margaret Atwood, Robert Hass, Michael Ondaatje, Robin Robertson and David Young.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 15, 2022.
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