A.F. Moritz has been awarded the second annual Al and Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize.

Moritz was awarded the prize for his 22nd collection of poetry, Great Silent Ballad, published in 2024 by House of Anansi Press.

The $10,000 prize honours the most outstanding new poetry book published in Canada by an established poet.

In the award announcement, 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.”

Toronto-based Moritz won the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2019 for his collection The Sentinel. He has been a finalist for the Trillium Awards and the Governor General’s Literary Award, twice, has won the ReLit Award and Raymond Souster Award, and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Award in Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Moritz was Toronto’s sixth poet laureate from 2019 to 2023.

A shortlist of five books was announced at the end of March. The other finalists were: Brian Bartlett for The Astonishing Room (Frontenac House); Tim Bowling for In the Capital City of Autumn (Wolsak & Wynn); Michael Ondaatje for A Year of Last Things (McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada); and Harold Rhenisch for The Salmon Shanties: A Cascadian Song Cycle (University of Regina Press).

The Al & Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize was established in 2024 by Eurithe Purdy, Al Purdy’s widow, and the announcement of the winner on April 21 coincides with the 25th anniversary of the poet’s death.

The 2025 prize jury was composed of Laisha Rosnau, Sam Solecki, and Sid Marty, the inaugural winner of the prize.