Nine poets have been named to the shortlist for the inaugural League of Canadian Poets Spoken Word Award.

The annual award celebrates the wide range of styles within the spoken word genre, “from dub poetry to spoken word poetry to sound poetry and beyond.”

The award will be given to two poets from two distinct styles of spoken word poetry, each for a single poem or suite of poems up to 10 minutes long.

The finalists for this year’s award are:

• Gary Barwin
• Priscille Bukasa
• Adeena Karasick
• Ian Keteku
• Cassandra Myers
• Stedmond Pardy
• Lisa Shen
• Angelic Vers
• Vironika Wilde

The finalists were selected by writer, editor, and spoken-word poet Andrea Thompson and poet, editor, and academic Eric Schmaltz. The winners will be announced on January 31.