Ten poetry collections have been named to the longlist for annual $130,000 international Griffin Poetry Prize.

All but one collection are by U.S or U.S.–based poets, including Nigerian poet Gbenga Adesina and the translators of Chilean poet Elvira Hernández’s collection Bodies Found in Various Places. Nick Makoka is a Ugandan poet and playwright who is based in London, U.K.

For the first time since the Griffin Poetry Prize changed to a single international prize, there are no Canadian poets on the longlist.

The shortlisted titles are:

• Death Does Not End at the Sea by Gbenga Adesina (University of Nebraska Press)
• Bodies Found in Various Places by Daniel Borzutzky & Alec Schumacher, translated from the Spanish written by Elvira Hernández (Cardboard House Press)
• Hardly Creatures by Rob Macaisa Colgate (Tin House)
• End of Empire by Marissa Davis (Penguin Books)
• Green of All Heads by Aracelis Girmay (BOA Editions)
• The New Carthaginians by Nick Makoha (Allen Lane/Penguin Random House)
• Foxglovewise by Ange Mlinko (Faber & Faber)
• Barley Child by Greg Rappleye (University of Arkansas Press)
• Burnt Mountain by Emily Wilson (University of Iowa Press)
• Night Watch by Kevin Young (Alfred A. Knopf/Penguin Random House)

The shortlist will be revealed on April 22, and the winner announced at the Readings in Toronto on June 3.

The winner receives a prize of $130,000 and each of the other finalists receive $10,000.

The judges for the 2026 prize are Halifax-based poet and academic Luke Hathaway, Colombian-born El Paso, Texas–based poet and creative writing professor Andrea Cote, and Nashville, Tennessee-based poet and academic Major Jackson.

This year’s jury considered 461 books of poetry, including 34 translations from 19 languages, submitted by 219 publishers from 42 different countries.

The Griffin Poetry Prize will announce the Lifetime Recognition Award Recipient on May 6 and the winner of the Canadian First Book Prize Winner will be announced on May 20.

In 2025 Griffin Poetry Prize was won by Karen Leeder for her translation from the German of Durs Grünbein’ Psyche Running. Dawn Macdonald was the 2025 winner of the Canadian First Book Prize for her collection Northerny published by University of Alberta Press.