Some of the biggest names in Canadian literature will come together tonight to see which two writers will win the lucrative Griffin Poetry Prize.
Two poets -- one Canadian, one international -- will take home $65,000 apiece at the Griffin gala in Toronto's Distillery District.
Former Toronto poet laureate Dionne Brand, a previous Griffin winner, could secure the honour a second time for "The Blue Clerk," published by McClelland & Stewart.
The other Canadian contenders are Victoria's Eve Joseph for the prose-poems in "Quarrels" (Anvil Press) and University of Waterloo professor Sarah Tolmie's "The Art of Dying" (McGill-Queen's University Press).
The Griffin Trust was founded in 2000 by chairman Scott Griffin, along with trustees Margaret Atwood, Robert Hass, Michael Ondaatje, Robin Robertson and David Young.
The prize is billed as the world's largest for a first-edition single collection of poetry written in or translated into English.
