Al and Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize - Past Winners
2025 - A.F. Moritz
Great Silent Ballad, lyric poet A.F. Moritz’s twenty-second volume of poetry, in visionary terms, forwards the assertion that poetry, a primordial reality, is in the current moment both the equal of, and the antidote to, the rest of present-day civilization and its self-destructive nature. The book probes the crucial value of childhood; a person’s development through maturity and age; the perennially avant-garde nature of great poetry; and poetry’s inherent involvement with hope and creativity, life and feeling, freedom and love.
Moritz’s entire post-education life has been spent in Toronto, and he served as the city’s poet laureate from 2019 to 2023. His works with Anansi, since 2004, have received the Griffin Poetry Prize, the ReLit Award, the Beth Hokin Prize, and the Raymond Souster Award, and were finalists for the Governor General’s Award (twice) and the Trillium Award. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Ingram Merrill Fellowship, and the Award in Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Of Moritz and Great Silent Ballad, Eurithe Purdy said: “Speaking for myself and my late husband Al, I am very pleased with the judges’ decision to award the second Al and Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize to A. F. Moritz. Mr. Moritz has a long and distinguished body of work both as a poet and a teacher. He is also a great mentor and encourager of younger writers, something Al would especially approve of.”
The winning title was selected by a jury comprised of Laisha Rosnau, Sam Solecki, and Sid Marty, the inaugural recipient of the prize in 2024 for Oldman’s River: New and Collected Poems.
“Great Silent Ballad questions and wrestles with notions of what poetry is, what poetry’s role is, alongside notions of God, myth, religion, death, the afterlife, humanity, social justice and injustice, and does so in a way that is both nuanced and accessible,” said Rosnau.
2024 - Sid Marty
The inaugural Al & Eurithe Purdy Prize went to Sid Marty for his exceptional collection, Oldman’s River: New and Collected Poems (NeWest Press). This comprehensive collection, featuring a foreword by Kit Dobson and Owen Percy and an interview by Pamela Banting, merges both familiar and unpublished works in a celebration of a Western Canadian icon’s career and artistic legacy.
Renowned for his intimate, lyrical poetry, Sid Marty’s portrayal of individuality, deep-rooted connections to landscapes, and profound engagement with Canadian environmental issues have established him as a distinctive and dissenting voice in Canadian literature. His poetry and prose, often echoing the essence of the Western vernacular, beautifully captures the myriad experiences of rural life—from the joys and sorrows to the vast landscapes of the prairies, foothills, and mountains in Alberta and British Columbia. He has authored five nonfiction and five poetry books, drawing inspiration from his time as a park warden in the Rocky Mountains. Two of Sid Marty’s nonfiction books, Leaning on the Wind and The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek, were finalists for the Governor General’s Award and his book Men for the Mountains was twice cited by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Association as one of the fifty most influential books in the Canadian conservation movement. Early poems published in Al Purdy’s Storm Warning anthology led to his first poetry collection, Headwaters, published in 1973. His poems appear in many Canadian anthologies, including The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse and a number of school textbooks. Born in England, he was raised from infancy in Alberta and lives near Pincher Creek in southwestern Alberta.
Of Sid Marty and Oldman’s River, Eurithe Purdy said: “I am very pleased to present the inaugural Al and Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize to Sid Marty for his 2023 book, Oldman’s River. Sid Marty is a plain-spoken poet with a distinctive Canadian voice very much in the Purdy tradition. In fact, he was a good friend of Al’s and got his first big break when Al included him in the landmark anthology Storm Warning: The New Canadian Poets in 1971. Since that time, Sid has continued to make consistently high-quality contributions to Canadian writing, both in prose and poetry. Oldman’s River: New and Collected Poems is a major work bringing together the best of Sid’s poetry over more than fifty years, as well as impressive new writing. It is a very worthy recipient of the first Al and Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize.”