Canadian Sylvia Legris and Barbadian Kamau Brathwaite were awarded the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize at an Asian-themed gala dinner in Toronto on 1 June. The awards, worth C$45,332 each to a Canadian and international winner, are the most lucrative poetry prizes in the world for a single volume of poetry. Sylvia Legris travelled from the prairies of Saskatchewan to collect her prize, awarded for her collection Nerve Squall. Kamau Brathwaite, a celebrated poet, performer and professor of comparative literature at New York University, won the international category for his collection Born to Slow Horses. A group of Canadian writers including Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje established the Griffin Trust in 2000, with the support of Toronto car parts magnate Scott Griffin.