The Griffin Poetry Prize announced today that it has combined its existing Canadian and international awards into a single $130,000 prize. The new annual prize represents the world’s largest international prize for a single book of poetry written in, or translated into English.
Gary Barwin is the author of the novel Yiddish for Pirates.(Adela Talbot, Vintage Canada)
Yiddish for Pirates is a nautical odyssey narrated by a wise-cracking, polyglot parrot. The parrot, who now lives in a nursing home in Florida, tells the story of Moishe, a boy who joins a ship s crew in 1492. There, Moishe meets the parrot, Aaron. The two have an unforgettable adventure, following maps and hunting for treasure. But it s the period of the Spanish Inquisition, and it s a dangerous time to be Jewish. When Jews as expelled from Spain, Moishe ends up travelling to the Caribbean with Christopher Columbus, making his adventures grander than he ever imagained.