TORONTO — B.C. doctor-turned-writer Tolu Oloruntoba says he feels “seen” after winning the Griffin Poetry Prize for a debut book that’s been years in the making.
Oloruntoba was named the Canadian winner of the $65,000 honour at an online ceremony Wednesday for “The Junta of Happenstance.”
The Surrey-based wordsmith said the announcement came in the middle of his family’s morning routine. After an extended hug, Oloruntoba packed his kids’ lunches and sent them off to school.
It was a more intimate celebration than the typical fanfare that unfolds at the Griffin’s annual Toronto soiree, which was a virtual event this year due to the pandemic.
While he’s not usually one for speeches, Oloruntoba said he would have thanked his literary peers for vindicating his winding 20-year journey to hone his craft.
“This makes me feel seen,” Oloruntoba, 36, said by phone Wednesday. “That is really the gratification of this work, knowing that my witness has been received, knowing that I’ve been heard, and knowing that, in some way, I left something with someone.”
“The Junta of Happenstance,” published by Anstruther Books, is billed as a “compendium of dis-ease” that explores illness, immigration and colonialism.
In their citation, Griffin jurors said the “exquisite poems leave an imprint both violent and terrifyingly beautiful.”
The international prize, also worth $65,000, went to St. Paul, Minn.-based wordsmith Douglas Kearney’s “Sho,” from Wave Books.
Oloruntoba started his career as a primary care physician in Nigeria before moving to the United States for graduate school and eventually settling in the Vancouver Metropolitan Area to work as a health-care manager.
Poetry was a constant throughout this peripatetic journey, Oloruntoba said. In the early 2010s, he started shopping around a manuscript for what he hoped would be his publishing debut.
In retrospect, Oloruntoba said he’s grateful forthe rejection. With no formal literary education, Oloruntoba pursued what he calls a “public library MFA,” voraciously reading other poets as he cultivated his own style by trial and error.
“Narrating something might make it look like there was a deliberate attempt to forge a certain path, but I stumbled my way through this,” he said. “I liked the feeling of accomplishment I got when I completed a poem, so I kept at it.”
The skills and experiences he gained would culminate in “The Junta of Happenstance,” which won the English-language poetry prize at the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Awards, launching Oloruntoba as a name to watch in Canada’s literary scene.
His chapbook, “Manubrium,” was shortlisted for the 2020 bpNichol Chapbook Award. His poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
His work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications including Harvard Divinity Bulletin, PRISM International and Columbia Journal, and his sophomore collection, “Each One a Furnace,” was published by McClelland & Stewart in March.
Rather than chasing literary achievement, Oloruntoba advised aspiring writers to take satisfaction in the “experimental” process of writing.
“For me, success is having written a poem and gotten it out of my system. Everything else that has come after that has been a lovely bonus,” he said. “I’ll just encourage them to keep doing the work. The work is highly essential to our humanity.”
The Canadian runners-up were Montreal’s David Bradford for “Dream of No One But Myself,” published by Brick Books, and 2016 Griffin winner Liz Howard, who is based in Toronto, for “Letters in a Bruised Cosmos” from McClelland & Stewart.
Also in the running for the international prize were: Ali Kinsella and Dzvinia Orlowsky’s translation of “Eccentric Days of Hope and Sorrow” by the Ukrainian poet Natalka Bilotserkivets, published by Lost Horse Press; Chicago writer Ed Roberson for “Asked What Has Changed,” from Wesleyan University Press; and “Late to the House of Words,” Sharon Dolin’s translation of the Catalan work by Gemma Gorga of Barcelona, published by Saturnalia Books.
Each finalist received $10,000.
The contenders were selected from 639 books of poetry submitted by 236 publishers from 16 different countries, prize organizers say. This year’s jury consists of Canadian writer Adam Dickinson, Belarusian poet Valzhyna Mort and U.S. poet and playwright Claudia Rankine.
The Griffin is billed as the world’s largest prize for a first-edition single collection of poetry written in or translated into English.
The Griffin Trust was founded in 2000 by chairman Scott Griffin, along with trustees Margaret Atwood, Robert Hass, Michael Ondaatje, Robin Robertson and David Young.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2022.
