This week in our poetry news round up we look at the death of the celebrated author and poet Jane Yolen, and a major restructuring of the Griffin Poetry Prize that brings back its Canadian award.
Author and Poet Jane Yolen Passes Away Aged 87
Jane Yolen, the prolific American writer who was as comfortable in poetry as she was in children’s books, fantasy and science fiction, has died at the age of 87. Yolen passed away peacefully at her home in Hatfield, Massachusetts on June 11th, surrounded by her family.
Born in New York City in 1939, Yolen graduated from Smith College in 1960, by which time she was already writing poetry and articles, and went on to earn a master’s degree in education from the University of Massachusetts. Her debut book, Pirates in Petticoats, was published in 1963 on her birthday, and over the following decades she went on to write or edit a staggering 450 books, the most recent of these published in 2026.
Although she became best known to the wider public as a children’s author, with titles such as Owl Moon and The Emperor and the Kite, and for her Holocaust novella The Devil’s Arithmetic, Yolen always considered herself first and foremost a poet and a writer. Her poetry and short fiction appeared frequently in magazines including Asimov’s, Strange Horizons and Star*Line, as well as in dozens of anthologies. In 2010 she was honoured with the Rhysling Grand Master award for her poetry.
Her work did not shy away from difficult subjects. Her collection Radiation Sonnets was written about her late husband’s battle with cancer, and her collection Kaddish, which deals with the Holocaust, earned her the Sophie Brody Medal from the American Library Association. The reviewers praised the way she distilled the reality of the Holocaust into verse, breaking new ground in the genre.
Over the course of her career Yolen received six honorary doctorates and a long list of honours, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the title of Grand Master from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. She also served as president of that organisation in the late 1980s and sat on the board of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators for over 25 years, mentoring countless writers and illustrators along the way.
Yolen is survived by her three children, including the musician Adam Stemple and the writer Heidi Stemple, with whom she frequently collaborated, and her six grandchildren. In a tribute, her daughter shared that her mother had passed gently, with Adam’s music filling the room and Heidi reading Owl Moon to her one last time.
Griffin Poetry Prize Reinstates Canadian Award
The trustees of the international Griffin Poetry Prize have announced a significant restructuring of the prize, the headline of which is the reinstatement of the Canadian Poetry Prize, valued at $65,000. The changes follow a period of consultation with the Canadian poetry community, including a town hall meeting held in late May.
The International Poetry Prize will remain unchanged at $130,000, and Canadian poets will still be eligible to compete for it. However, a Canadian poet cannot win both prizes; should a Canadian win the International Prize, a separate Canadian book will be selected to receive the Canadian award. Where a translated work takes either prize, the money will be split equally between the translator and the original author, provided both are alive at the date of publication.
A number of other adjustments were announced alongside the headline change. The longlist will be expanded to twelve books and will guarantee Canadian representation, while the shortlist will remain at five, with each shortlisted poet who attends the annual readings receiving $10,000. The panel of three judges will always include a Canadian. The Canadian First Book Prize stays at $10,000, although the Civitella Ranieri residency in Italy will no longer accompany it, and the Lifetime Recognition Award remains at $25,000. In total, the Griffin Poetry Prize now awards $280,000 in prize money.
The announcement comes just a week after the prize named Night Watch by Kevin Young as the winner of the 2026 Griffin Poetry Prize.
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