Gerald Lampert Award

The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award is an annual literary award presented 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.^[1] Each winner receives an honorarium of $1000.

In its earliest years, the award was not necessarily limited to poetry, but was presented to the year's best first book by a Canadian writer in either poetry or prose.^[2]

Winners and nominees

1980s

Gerald Lampert Award winners and nominees

Year	Poet	Title	Result	Ref.
1981	Elizabeth Allan	The Shored Up House	Winner
1982	Edna Alford	A Sleep Full of Dreams	Winner	[2]
	Abraham Boyarsky	Schielber	Winner
1983	Diana Hartog	Matinee Light	Winner
1984	Jean McKay	Gone to Grass	Winner	[3]
	Sandra Birdsell	Night Travellers	Winner
1985	Paulette Jiles	Celestial Navigation	Winner	[4]
1986	Joan Fern Shaw	Raspberry Vinegar	Winner	[5]
1987	Rosemary Sullivan	The Space a Name Makes	Winner	[6]
1988	Di Brandt	Questions I Asked My Mother	Winner	[7]
	Beverly Daurio	If Summer Had a Knife	Shortlist	[8]
	Janet Simpson-Cooke	Future Rivers
1989	Sarah Klassen	Journey to Yalta	Winner	[9]

1990s

Year	Poet	Title	Result	Ref.
1990	Steven Heighton	Stalin's Carnival	Winner	[10]
	Nancy Mattson	Maria Breaks Her Silence	Shortlist	[11]
	Bruce Meyer	The Open Room
	Kim Morrissey	Batoche
	Bruce Taylor	Cold Rubber Feet
1991	Diana Brebner	Radiant Life Forms	Winner	[12]
	Lesley-Anne Bourne	The Story of Pears	Shortlist	[13]
	Michael Redhill	Impromptu Feats of Balance
	Ronn Silverstein	Diary of a Glass Blower in Solitude
1992	Joanne Arnott	Wiles of Girlhood	Winner	[14]
1993	Elisabeth Harvor	Fortress of Chairs	Winner	[15]
	Roberta Rees	Eyes Like Pigeons	Winner
1994	Barbara Klar	The Night You Called Me a Shadow	Winner	[16]
	Ilya Tourtidis	Mad Magellan's Tale	Winner
1995	Keith Maillard	Dementia Americana	Winner	[17]
1996	Maureen Hynes	Rough Skin	Winner	[18]
	Kevin Connolly	Asphalt Cigar	Shortlist	[19]
	Esta Spalding	Carrying Place
	Terry Watada	A Thousand Homes
	Sue Wheeler	Solstice on the Anacortes Ferry
1997	Marilyn Dumont	A Really Good Brown Girl	Winner	[1]
	Mike Barnes	Calm Jazz Sea	Shortlist	[20]
	Ronna Bloom	Fear of the Ride
	Margo Button	The Unhinging of Wings
	Crispin Elsted	Climate and the Affections
	Tonja Gunvaldsen Klaassen	Clay Birds
	Richard Sanger	Shadow Cabinet
	Diane L. Tucker	God on His Haunches
1998	Mark Sinnett	The Landing	Winner	[21]
	Jill Battson	Hard Candy	Shortlist	[22]
	Damian Lopes	Towards the Quest
	Barbara Mulcahy	The Man With the Dancing Monkey
	Carmine Starnino	The New World
1999	Stephanie Bolster	White Stone: The Alice Poems	Winner	[23]

2000s

Year	Poet	Title	Result	Ref.
2000	Shawna Lemay	All the God-Sized Fruit	Winner	[24]
	Lynn Davies	The Bridge That Carries the Road	Shortlist	[25]
	David O'Meara	Storm Still	Shortlist
	Rachel Rose	Giving My Body to Science	Shortlist
	Terence Young	The Island in Winter	Shortlist
2001	Anne Simpson	Light Falls Through You	Winner	[1]
2002	Aislinn Hunter	Into the Early Hours	Winner	[26]
2003	Kathy Mac	Nail Builders Plan for Strength and Growth	Winner	[27]
	Nancy Jo Cullen	Science Fiction Saint	Shortlist	[28]
	Michael deBeyer	Rural Night Catalogue	Shortlist
	Sharron Proulx-Turner	what the auntys say	Shortlist
	Christine Wiesenthal	Instruments of Surrender	Shortlist
2004	Adam Getty	Reconciliation	Winner	[29]
	Chris Banks	Bonfires	Shortlist	[30]
	Jill Hartman	A Painted Elephant	Shortlist
	Alison Pick	Question & Answer	Shortlist
	Ali Riley	Wayward	Shortlist
2005	Ray Hsu	Anthropy	Winner	[31]
	Geoffrey Cook	Postscript	Shortlist	[32]
	Susan Downe	Little Horse	Shortlist
	A. J. Levin	Monk's Fruit	Shortlist
	Steve McOrmond	Lean Days	Shortlist
2006	Suzanne Buffam	Past Imperfect	Winner	[33]
2007	Steven Price	Anatomy of Keys	Winner	[34]
2008	Alex Boyd	Making Bones Walk	Winner	[35]
	Joshua Auerbach	Radius of Light	Shortlist	[36]
	Alison Calder	Wolf Tree	Shortlist
	Dymphny Dronyk	Contrary Infatuations	Shortlist
	Kim Goldberg	Ride Backwards on Dragon	Shortlist
	Erin Knight	The Sweet Fuels	Shortlist
2009	Katia Grubisic	what if red ran out	Winner	[37]
	Adam Chiles	Evening Land	Shortlist	[37]
	Jeramy Dodds	Crabwise to the Hounds	Shortlist
	Kate Eichhorn	Fond	Shortlist
	Sachiko Murakami	The Invisibility Exhibit	Shortlist
	Johanna Skibsrud	Late Nights With Wild Cowboys	Shortlist

2010s

Year	Poet	Title	Result	Ref.
2010	James Langer	Gun Dogs	Winner
	Kate Hall	The Certainty Dream	Shortlist	[38]
	Marcus McCann	Soft Where	Shortlist
	Soraya Peerbaye	Poems for the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names	Shortlist
	Marguerite Pigeon	Inventory	Shortlist
	Robert Earl Stewart	Something Burned Along the Southern Border	Shortlist
2011	Anna Swanson	The Nights Also	Winner	[39]
	Susan Briscoe	The Crow’s Vow	Shortlist	[40]
	Karen Enns	That Other Beauty	Shortlist
	Jeff Latosik	Tiny, Frantic, Stronger	Shortlist
	Nikki Reimer	[sic]	Shortlist
	Clea Roberts	Here Is Where We Disembark	Shortlist
2012	Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang	Sweet Devilry	Winner	[41]
	Kirsty Elliot	True	Shortlist	[42]
	Rosemary Griebel	Yes	Shortlist
	Suzanne Robertson	Paramita	Shortlist
	Lisa Shatzky	Do Not Call Me By My Name	Shortlist
	Leslie Vryenhoek	Gulf	Shortlist
2013	Gillian Savigny	Notebook M	Winner	[43]
	James Arthur	Charms Against Lightning	Shortlist	[44]
	Nora Gould	I see my love more clearly from a distance	Shortlist
	Mathew Henderson	The Lease	Shortlist
	Nyla Matuk	Sumptuary Laws	Shortlist
	Andrew McEwan	Repeater	Shortlist
2014	Murray Reiss	The Survival Rate of Butterflies in the Wild	Winner	[45]
	Jordan Abel	the place of scraps	Shortlist	[46]
	Laurie D. Graham	Rove	Shortlist
	Julie Joosten	Light Light	Shortlist
	Emilia Nielsen	Surge Narrows	Shortlist
	Juleta Severson-Baker	Incarnate	Shortlist
2015	Kayla Czaga	For Your Safety Please Hold On	Winner	[47]
	Sylvia D. Hamilton	And I Alone Escaped to Tell You	Shortlist	[48]
	Stevie Howell	Sharps	Shortlist
	Kerry Lee Powell	Inheritance	Shortlist
	Suzannah Showler	Failure to Thrive	Shortlist
	Anne-Marie Turza	The Quiet	Shortlist
2016	Ben Ladouceur	Otter	Winner	[49]
	Melissa Bull	Rue	Shortlist	[50]
	Chad Campbell	Laws & Locks	Shortlist
	Raoul Fernandes	Transmitter and Receiver	Shortlist
	Cassidy McFadzean	Hacker Packer	Shortlist
	Derek Webster	Mockingbird	Shortlist
2017	Ingrid Ruthig	This Being	Winner	[51]
	Christopher Gudgeon	Assdeep in Wonder	Shortlist	[52]
	Jennifer Houle	The Back Channels	Shortlist
	John Nyman	Players	Shortlist
	Margo Wheaton	The Unlit Path Behind the House	Shortlist
	Banoo Zan	Songs of Exile	Shortlist
2018	Emily Nilsen	Otolith	Winner	[53]
	Billy-Ray Belcourt	This Wound is a World	Shortlist	[54]
	Jack Davis	Faunics	Shortlist
	Wendy Donawa	Thin Air of the Knowable	Shortlist
	Julie Paul	The Rules of the Kingdom	Shortlist
	Phoebe Wang	Admission Requirements	Shortlist
2019	T. Liem	Obits.	Winner	[55]
	Tanis Franco	Quarry	Shortlist	[56]
	Mikko Harvey	Unstable Neighbourhood Rabbit	Shortlist
	Jenny Haysom	Dividing the Wayside	Shortlist
	Klara du Plessis	Ekke	Shortlist
	Shazia Hafiz Ramji	Port of Being	Shortlist

2020s

Year	Poet	Title	Result	Ref.
2020	Heather Birrell	Float and Scurry	Winner	[57]
	Laura Cok	Doubter's Hymnal	Shortlist	[58]
	Paola Ferrante	What to Wear While Surviving a Lion Attack	Shortlist
	Thomas King	77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin	Shortlist
	Alessandra Naccarato	Re-Origin of Species	Shortlist
	Matthew Walsh	these are not the potatoes of my youth	Shortlist
2021	Bertrand Bickersteth	The Response of Weeds	Winner	[59]
	Jillian Christmas	the gospel of breaking	Shortlist	[60]
	Valerie Mason-John	I Am Still Your Negro	Shortlist
	Bahar Orang	Where Things Touch	Shortlist
	Tyler Pennock	Bones	Shortlist
	Natasha Ramoutar	Bittersweet	Shortlist
2022	Alisha Kaplan	Qorbanot: Offerings	Winner	[61]
	Selina Boan	Undoing Hours	Shortlist	[62]
	D. M. Bradford	Dream of No One but Myself
	Dallas Hunt	Creeland
	Matsuki Masutani	I will be more myself in the next world
	Tom Prime	Mouthfuls of Space
	Bardia Sinaee	Intruder
2023
	Matthew James Weigel	Whitemud Walking	Winner	[63]
	Manahil Bandukwala	Monument	Shortlist	[64]
	Skylar Kay	Transcribing Moonlight
	Anne Marie Todkill	Orion Sweeping
	Délani Valin	Shapeshifters
	Sanna Wani	My Grief, the Sun
2024	Hannah Green	Xanax Cowboy	Winner	[65]
	Britta Badour	Wires That Sputter	Shortlist	[66]
	Brandi Bird	The All + Flesh
	Maggie Burton	Chores
	Laila Malik	Archipelago
	A. Light Zachary	More Sure