Kevin Young has won the 2026 Griffin Poetry Prize.
Article excerpt
Kevin Young's Night Watch has won the 2026 Griffin Poetry Prize, announced last night at an event in Toronto. The award, which carries the distinction of being the world's largest international prize for a single book of poetry published in English, recognizes Young's collection chosen by judges Andrea Cote, Luke Hathaway, and Major Jackson. The prize celebrates Young's exploration of nocturnal imagery and meditation, marking a significant honor in contemporary poetry.
Last night, at an event in Toronto, the Griffin Poetry Prize, the world’s largest international prize for a single book of poetry published in English, announced its 2026 winner: Kevin Young’s Night Watch. Judges Andrea Cote, Luke Hathaway, and Major Jackson chose Night Watch from a total of 461 books of poetry from 42 different countries.
“In his most experimental volume to date, Kevin Young’s Night Watch crafts a melancholic and haunting collection of sequence poems that layers multiple literary traditions with a dexterity that amounts to a provocation of sonic and epic proportions,” the judges’ citation reads. “Full of quick-witted and improvisational movement, Young’s triadic lines tackle loneliness, grief, and racial legacies that are deeply American. Blues-tinged and hypnotic, Night Watch points to the shadowy edges where the living are “an orchard of scars” and the dead “are writing / a diary / of the living.” Young’s erudite makeover of Dante’s terza rima and his historical examination of the famed Carolina Twins marks the zenith of a book whose resilient, soulful spirit enchants even as it faces its most anguished, spiritual questions.”
Young will take home C$130,000 in prize money; each of the other finalists will be awarded C$10,000.