PLANET Earth Poetry's SPRING CONTEST 2024:
A TRIBUTE TO PATRICK LANE

Welcome to our Spring Contest! Our judge is the esteemed poet, Lorna Crozier, and the winners will be announced during National Poetry Month.
First Prize: A limited edition print of Patrick Lane’s artwork (valued at $250) ~
kindly donated by Lorna Crozier
Second Prize: A copy of The Collected Poems of Patrick Lane ($45 value) ~
kindly donated by Harbour Publishing

SHORTLISTED POEMS:

"Something tries to go dead in us all the time” - Diane Massam
"I Am Outside Myself, Without Disguise” - Erin Wilson
"Bell, Book, Candle and Cat” - Lois Mary Hammond
"That the Green World Come Back” - Chelsea Comeau 
"listen to the prayers the leaves make” - Genelle Schmunk
"There's Only a Little Left to Know” - Heidi Garnett
"These Steady Accretions: Collect for Patrick” - Wendy Donawa 

Winners announced: TBA
The winning poem will be published on Planet Earth Poetry’s website, and announced in our newsletter and on social media.

An Officer of the Order of Canada, Lorna Crozier has been acknowledged for her contributions to Canadian literature, her teaching and her mentoring with five honourary doctorates, most recently from McGill and Simon Fraser Universities.

Her books have received numerous national awards, including the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry. The Globe and Mail declared The Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Everyday Things one of its Top 100 Books of the Year, and Amazon chose her memoir as one of the 100 books you should read in your lifetime.

A Professor Emerita at the University of Victoria, she has performed for Queen Elizabeth II and has read her poetry, which has been translated into several languages, on every continent except Antarctica. Her book, What the Soul Doesn't Want, was nominated for the 2017 Governor General's Award for Poetry. In 2018, Lorna Crozier received the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award. Steven Price called Through the Garden: A Love Story (with Cats), her latest nonfiction book, “one of the great love stories of our time.” Lorna Crozier lives on Vancouver Island.

Patrick Lane was one of Canada's pre-eminent poets, winner of numerous awards, including the Governor General's Award for Poetry, the Canadian Authors Association Award, the Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence, and three National Magazine Awards. His distinguished career spanned more than fifty years. He wrote twenty-five volumes of poetry, as well as award-winning books of fiction and non-fiction.

He lived and travelled extensively around the world and his work has been published in a number of countries, including England, France, the Czech Republic, Italy, China, Japan, Chile, Colombia, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, and Russia. He was writer in residence and teacher at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, the University of Victoria in British Columbia, and the University of Toronto in Ontario. Patrick Lane most recently lived near Victoria, BC, with his wife, the poet Lorna Crozier.