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The Walrus Poetry Prize

Illustration by Jason Logan
January/February 2017 / Poetry

I Open the Dryer and a Robin Sails Out

December 20, 2016April 7, 2020 - by Adèle Barclay

Winner of the 2016 Walrus Poetry Prize Readers’ Choice Award You are driving a bus across Alberta, deciding between seasons, plucking aphids and roses. Over mountains I feel the peak …

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Illustration by Jason Logan
January/February 2017 / Poetry

Colloquium: J.T. Henry and Lady Simcoe on Early Ontario Petrocolonialism

December 20, 2016April 26, 2017 - by David Huebert

Winner of the 2016 Walrus Poetry Prize Mrs. Hamilton drank tea with me. Mrs. McGill, wife of the commissary, Capt. John McGill, and Miss Crookshank, her sister, are pleasant women …

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Poetry

Splitting Worlds

October 26, 2016April 26, 2017 - by Kara Smith

Finalist for the 2016 Walrus Poery Prize Wenesh aw? Who is that? I know her not, the girl she is today, hard lines drawn by a world that forced her …

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Poetry

Safe Word

October 26, 2016April 26, 2017 - by Alessandro Porco

Finalist for the 2016 Walrus Poetry Prize No one Has lots of them Lays or friends or anything That can make a little light in all that darkness —Jack Spicer …

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Poetry

On Being Threatened Over Red Willow Park

October 26, 2016November 19, 2019 - by Curtis LeBlanc

Finalist for the 2016 Walrus Poetry Prize St. Albert, Alberta The black patina of wood tar stinks and sticks to the soles of our shoes as Matthew and I follow …

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Poetry

Sloth

October 26, 2015January 2, 2020 - by Dan MacIsaac

Finalist for the 2015 Walrus Poetry Prize Icon of verdigris and pale lichen, odalisque pelted with algae, ark of beetles and moon moths, paralytic rooster mute as a burl. Slow …

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Poetry

Westward U-Haul Gothic

October 26, 2015January 2, 2020 - by Claire Kelly

Finalist for the 2015 Walrus Poetry Prize b/c we’ve no cd player though we packed cds. b/c I’m being driven through Manitoba in a benadryl haze. b/c Manitoba goes on …

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Poetry

Vortex Fluid Device

October 26, 2015July 20, 2020 - by Kayla Czaga

Finalist for the 2015 Walrus Poetry Prize In California, chemists are unboiling eggs to cure children and vaccinate cancer. I am unwriting poems, letter by letter to cure sentimentality because …

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Poetry

What Was Once Russia

October 26, 2015January 2, 2020 - by Lynn Crosbie

Finalist for the 2015 Walrus Poetry Prize “The CCP or whatever,” my father says, anxiously. “I’ve been here for fifteen years.” I remind him that Francis is almost fifteen—his limp …

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Poetry

Onakawana

October 26, 2015January 2, 2020 - by Debra Bennett

Finalist for the 2015 Walrus Poetry Prize After Joseph Boyden “The Wonder and Danger of the Mighty Moose River” Islands so big they look like mainland, sturgeon large as man …

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© 2025 The Walrus. All Rights Reserved. Charitable Registration Number: No. 861851624-RR0001
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© 2023 The Walrus. All Rights Reserved.
Charitable Registration Number: No. 861851624-RR0001

​​The Walrus is located within the bounds of Treaty 13 signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit. This land is also the traditional territory of the Anishnabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples.

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How’s The Walrus?

As the executive director, I am frequently asked this question. These days, I reply: “The Walrus was made for this moment.” From on-again, off-again trade news and negotiations to a new prime minister, we are committed to Canada’s conversations. We launched six regional bureaus earlier this year to ensure comprehensive coverage across this great country of ours. But we can’t do this alone. As a non-profit newsroom, this work isn’t possible without our readers’ support. If you believe in Canada’s stories, support our paywall-free journalism with a donation today.

Our team is small, but our commitment is big; just like our country. Every story we publish is the result of writers, artists, and editors going the extra mile (well, kilometres) to bring Canada closer together through compelling, fact-checked, and regionally grounded reporting.

Thank you for your support.

Jennifer Hollett
Executive Director, The Walrus

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