Nigerian-born poet Gbenga Adesina has been named on the five-strong shortlist for the 2026 Griffin Poetry Prize for his collection, Death Does Not End at the Sea, per cbc.ca.
Valued at $130,000, the Canadian award is the world’s largest international prize for a single volume of poetry written in or translated into English.
Adesina’s work is one of five titles selected from 461 submissions representing 42 countries. The shortlist was determined by a three-person jury comprising Canadian poet Luke Hathaway and international writers Andrea Cote and Major Jackson. The 2026 finalists also include Kevin Young for Night Watch, Ange Mlinko for Foxglovewise and Aracelis Girmay for Green of All Heads.
The only translated work on the shortlist is Elvira Hernández’s Bodies Found in Various Places, translated from Spanish by Daniel Borzutzky and Alec Schumacher. Under the prize’s regulations, if a translated work wins, the $130,000 purse is split, with 60% awarded to the translator and 40% to the original poet.
The winner will be announced at a gala ceremony in Toronto on June 3. Each of the remaining four finalists will receive $10,000 for their shortlisting. Additional awards to be presented at the event include a $25,000 lifetime recognition prize and a Canadian first book award, which includes a six-week residency in Italy.
The Griffin Poetry Prize was established in 2000 by philanthropist Scott Griffin. In 2023, the foundation restructured the award, merging its former separate Canadian and international categories into a single global prize to increase the financial impact for the winner.
Gbenga Adesina, previously a winner of the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, is noted for his lyrical exploration of migration, memory and the African diaspora. His inclusion in the Griffin shortlist cements his status as a leading voice in contemporary global literature.
