Autobiography of Death by Don Mee Choi, translated from the Korean written by Kim Hyesoon (New Directions) and Quarrels by Eve Joseph (Anvil Press) are the International and Canadian winners of the 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize. They each received C$65,000 in prize money.

The Griffin Poetry Prize was founded in 2000 to serve and encourage excellence in poetry. The prize is for first edition books of poetry written in, or translated into, English and submitted from anywhere in the world.

The 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist features four International and three Canadian poetry collections:

• Raymond Antrobus' The Perseverance, published by Penned in the Margins
• Daniel Borzutzky's Lake Michigan, published by University of Pittsburgh Press
• Don Mee Choi's translation from the Korean of Autobiography of Death written by Kim Hyesoon, published by New Directions
• Ani Gjika's translation from the Albanian of Negative Space written by Luljeta Lleshanaku, published by Bloodaxe Books
• Dionne Brand's The Blue Clerk, published by McClelland & Stewart
• Eve Joseph's Quarrels, published by Anvil Press
• Sarah Tolmie's The Art of Dying, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press.

On June 5 the poets read excerpts from their books at the Shortlist Readings to an audience of 1,000 people, in Toronto in Koerner Hall at The Royal Conservatory, TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning. Trustee Karen Solie presented each poet with a leather-bound edition of their book and $10,000 for their participation in the Readings.