Priscila Uppal Memorial Award for Poetry
“She was, as anyone who knew her will tell you, one of the true, great lovers of story. Priscila was the kind of woman you did not know you needed until she arrived. And I know she will keep on arriving in everything she’s left behind.” – Canisia Lubrin
Named “Canada’s coolest poet” by Time Out London, Priscila Uppal was a tour-de-force and her poetry was anything but sit-down, tame, or by the book. Priscila wasn’t afraid to wear wigs, be theatrical, and laugh at our beautiful and messy world.
There must be a universe out there
where all I do is cuddle with the cat.Some of this appeals to the poet
if not the scientist in me.I've always said genius is the ability
to make connections between disparate things.I'm being asked to make a connection
between my mortality
and everlasting life.I am not ill, you see,
not in this nor in any other lifetime.
I'm a genius, too,
awaiting the test results.— from “Physics” by Priscila Uppal
The Priscila Uppal Memorial Award for Poetry is given to the single best poem submitted, along with a $500 cash prize and publication in Canthius. A runner-up also receives a $250 cash prize and publication in Canthius.
Contest Details
2023 Contest Dates: October 25th to November 25th 2023
The short list and winners will be announced in early 2024.
First Prize: $500 + publication in Canthius
Runner-up: $250 + publication in Canthius
Entry Fee: $25 (paid through Submittable)
Entry fee includes a one-year subscription to Canthius, beginning with Issue 13.
To make the contest as accessible as possible, we have a limited number of fee waivers available. If the contest entry fee is a financial barrier for you, please email editor@canthius.com to request a fee waiver. Submitters with a fee waiver will receive a digital copy of Canthius with their contest entry.
2023 Judge: T. Liem
T. Liem is the author of Slows: Twice (Coach House 2023), and Obits. (Coach House, 2018), which was shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award, and won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award as well as the A.M. Klein Prize. Their writing has been published in Apogee, Plenitude, The Boston Review, Grain, Maisonneuve, Catapult, The Malahat Review, The Fiddlehead, and elsewhere. They live in Montreal, Tio’Tia:ke, unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territories.
Past Winners
More about past winners can be found here. Our sincerest thanks to all who contributed to making our first contest a success, especially to Phoebe Wang, Liz Howard, and to Priscila’s friends and family for their love and support. We’re so grateful to the executors of Priscila’s literary estate for their support of this award and for their guidance on its design and administration.
ABOUT PRISCILA UPPAL
Priscila Uppal (1974-2018) was a Toronto poet, fiction writer, and professor. Among her publications were nine collections of poetry, including Ontological Necessities which was shortlisted for the 2006 Griffin Prize. Her poetry is philosophical and lyrical, always defiant and rooted in the day-to-day of intimate and social life. Uppal’s writing crossed genres and her craft shifted to suit the distinctive insights of her many works of poetry, fiction, theatre, and criticism. Uppal taught at York University and was a mentor to many young poets. She died in 2018 after a long struggle with synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer.