Toronto (Canada), June 6 (EFI). – The novel “Self-Portrait in the Zone of Silence,” the Canadian writer and translator George McWhirter’s translation of the works of the Mexican poet Homero Aridges, won the Griffin Poetry Prize, the largest poetry award in the world. Important in Canada.
The award, worth 130,000 Canadian dollars (95,000 US dollars or 87,000 euros), was presented to McWhirter at a ceremony held Wednesday night in Toronto.
Aridjis, who had planned to attend the ceremony, was unable to travel to Canada because he was recovering from intestinal surgery, according to Canadian media reports on Thursday.
60% of the award goes to McWhirter while the remaining 40% goes to the Mexican author.
The award jury confirmed that the film “Self-Portrait in the Zone of Silence” places “the talented English poet and translator George McWhirter at the service of the great international poet Homer Aridges.”
The jury added: “The book’s engaging diversity of tones and themes express a whole human being engaged in our full experience, from the familiar to the political, from physical sensations to dream and vision, philosophical thought and history, and from hope to feeling.” .
McWhirter, an Irish-born writer and poet, whose first book of poetry was titled Catalan Poems, translated the works of Mario Arregui, Carlos Fuentes, and José Emilio Pacheco into English. Evie
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