Tom Wayman

Poet Tom Wayman has been named the winner of the 2026 Al and Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize.

The annual $10,000 prize, administered by the Al Purdy A-Frame Association, was established in 2024 by Purdy’s widow, Eurithe Purdy, to recognize the most outstanding new poetry book by an established Canadian poet who has published five or more poetry books.

Wayman, who lives in British Columbia’s West Kootenays, won this year’s prize for his collection Out of the Ordinary, published by Harbour Publishing. Wayman said it was an honour to be awarded the Purdy Prize, particularly since “in my study where I write each day, a framed photo of Al glowers down at me—keeping my writing honest, I like to think.”

Wayman also said in a press release that Purdy was helpful to him when he was a young poet in two ways: first, by including his work in a 1971 anthology of young poets to watch, Storm Warning, and second, by writing many of his own poems in a conversational tone that Wayman has seen as a model.

“Nobody else in the history of English-language literature beats Purdy at this means to create a poetry anyone can enjoy,” Wayman said. 

Wayman has published more than 20 collections of poetry (including four selected works), three collections of critical and cultural essays, a memoir, three books of short fiction and a novel, and has edited six poetry anthologies. His debut collection, Waiting for Wayman, was published in 1973.

Wayman was one of five poets shortlisted for this year’s prize. The shortlisted titles were chosen by a jury of three poets: Susan Musgrave and the two previous winners of the prize, Sid Marty and A.F. Moritz.