Gerald Lampert Award


The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award is made annually by the League of Canadian Poets to the best volume of poetry published by a first-time poet. It is presented in honour of poetry promoter Gerald Lampert. Each winner receives an honorarium of $1000.

Winners and nominees

YearWinnerNominated
1981 Elizabeth Allan, The Shored Up House
1982 Abraham Boyarsky, Schielber
Edna Alford, A Sleep Full of Dreams
1983 Diana Hartog, Matinee Light
1984 Sandra Birdsell, Night Travellers
Jean McKay, Gone to Grass
1985 Paulette Jiles, Celestial Navigation
1986 Joan Fern Shaw, Raspberry Vinegar
1987 Rosemary Sullivan, The Space a Name Makes
1988 Di Brandt, Questions I Asked My Mother
  • Beverly Daurio, If Summer Had a Knife
  • Janet Simpson-Cooke, Future Rivers
1989 Sarah Klassen, Journey to Yalta
1990 Steven Heighton, Stalin's Carnival
1991 Diana Brebner, Radiant Life Forms
  • Lesley-Anne Bourne, The Story of Pears
  • Michael Redhill, Impromptu Feats of Balance
  • Ronn Silverstein, Diary of a Glass Blower in Solitude
    • 1992 Joanne Arnott, Wiles of Girlhood
    1993 Elisabeth Harvor, Fortress of Chairs Roberta Rees, Eyes Like Pigeons
    1994 Barbara Klar, The Night You Called Me a Shadow
    Ilya Tourtidis, Mad Magellan's Tale
    1995 Keith Maillard, Dementia Americana
    1996 Maureen Hynes, Rough Skin
    1997 Marilyn Dumont, A Really Good Brown Girl
    1998 Mark Sinnett, The Landing
    1999 Stephanie Bolster, White Stone: The Alice Poems
    2000 Shawna Lemay, All the God-Sized Fruit
    2001 Anne Simpson, Light Falls Through You
    2002 Aislinn Hunter, Into the Early Hours
    2003 Kathy Mac, Nail Builders Plan for Strength and Growth
    • Nancy Jo Cullen, Science Fiction Saint
    • Michael deBeyer, Rural Night Catalogue
    • Sharron Proulx-Turner, what the auntys say
    • Christine Wiesenthal, Instruments of Surrender
    2004 Adam Getty, Reconciliation
  • Chris Banks, Bonfires
  • Jill Hartman, A Painted Elephant
  • Alison Pick, Question & Answer
  • Ali Riley, Wayward
    • 2005 Ray Hsu, Anthropy
  • Geoffrey Cook, Postscript
  • Susan Downe, Little Horse
  • A. J. Levin, Monk's Fruit
  • Steve McOrmond, Lean Days
    • 2006 Suzanne Buffam, Past Imperfect
    2007 Steven Price, Anatomy of Keys
    2008 Alex Boyd, Making Bones Walk
  • Joshua Auerbach, Radius of Light
  • Alison Calder, Wolf Tree
  • Dymphny Dronyk, Contrary Infatuations
  • Kim Goldberg, Ride Backwards on Dragon
  • Erin Knight, The Sweet Fuels
    • 2009 Katia Grubisic, what if red ran out
  • Adam Chiles, Evening Land
  • Jeramy Dodds, Crabwise to the Hounds
  • Kate Eichhorn, Fond
  • Sachiko Murakami, The Invisibility Exhibit
  • Johanna Skibsrud, Late Nights With Wild Cowboys
    • 2010 James Langer, Gun Dogs
  • Kate Hall, The Certainty Dream
  • Marcus McCann, Soft Where
  • Soraya Peerbaye, Poems for the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names
  • Marguerite Pigeon, Inventory
  • Robert Earl Stewart, Something Burned Along the Southern Border
    • 2011 Anna Swanson, The Nights Also
  • Susan Briscoe, The Crow’s Vow
  • Karen Enns, That Other Beauty
  • Jeff Latosik, Tiny, Frantic, Stronger
  • Nikki Reimer, '
  • Clea Roberts, Here Is Where We Disembark
    • 2012 Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang, Sweet Devilry
  • Kirsty Elliot, True
  • Rosemary Griebel, Yes
  • Suzanne Robertson, Paramita
  • Lisa Shatzky, Do Not Call Me By My Name
  • Leslie Vryenhoek, Gulf
    • 2013 Gillian Savigny, Notebook M
  • James Arthur, Charms Against Lightning
  • Nora Gould, I see my love more clearly from a distance
  • Mathew Henderson, The Lease
  • Nyla Matuk, Sumptuary Laws
  • Andrew McEwan, Repeater
    • 2014 Murray Reiss, The Survival Rate of Butterflies in the Wild
  • Jordan Abel, the place of scraps
  • Laurie D. Graham, Rove
  • Julie Joosten, Light Light
  • Emilia Nielsen, Surge Narrows
  • Juleta Severson-Baker, Incarnate
    • 2015 Kayla Czaga, For Your Safety Please Hold On
  • Sylvia D. Hamilton, And I Alone Escaped to Tell You
  • Stevie Howell, Sharps
  • Kerry Lee Powell, Inheritance
  • Suzannah Showler, Failure to Thrive
  • Anne-Marie Turza, The Quiet
    • 2016 Ben Ladouceur, Otter
  • Melissa Bull, Rue
  • Chad Campbell, Laws & Locks
  • Raoul Fernandes, Transmitter and Receiver
  • Cassidy McFadzean, Hacker Packer
  • Derek Webster, Mockingbird
    • 2017 Ingrid Ruthig, This Being
  • Christopher Gudgeon, Assdeep in Wonder
  • Jennifer Houle, The Back Channels
  • John Nyman, Players
  • Margo Wheaton, The Unlit Path Behind the House
  • Banoo Zan, Songs of Exile
    • 2018 Emily Nilsen, Otolith
  • Billy-Ray Belcourt, This Wound is a World
  • Jack Davis, Faunics
  • Wendy Donawa, Thin Air of the Knowable
  • Julie Paul, The Rules of the Kingdom
  • Phoebe Wang, Admission Requirements
    • 2019 Tess Liem, Obits.'
  • Klara du Plessis, Ekke
  • Tanis Franco, Quarry
  • Mikko Harvey, Unstable Neighbourhood Rabbit
  • Jenny Haysom, Dividing the Wayside
  • Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Port of Being''