A Poetry Award With Narrow Scope

So the organizers of the new $10,000 Trillium Prize for a first book of poetry by an Ontario resident couldn’t find enough entrants to even mount a shortlist. Can we really be surprised? wonders Alex Good. How many good new debut poetry books by an Ontario resident are there in a given year. Who are the people running this award? A check of the group’s website reveals an intimidating corporate “mission statement”: “Our focus is to build capacity and competitiveness of Ontario’s cultural media industry, individually and across the sectors and to provide opportunities that encourage business alliances across the cultural industries.”