Di Brandt, who apparently has nothing to lean on

A storm of protest has broken out in Canada about the awarding of the prestigious (and lucrative) Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry this year. According to a CBC wire story, the winner of the $25,000 prize — Jacob Scheier for his collection More to Keep Us Warm — was chosen by a three person jury, one of whom, Di Brandt, is a longtime friend of the author and who also translated a poem in the book, while another of whom, Pierre Giorgio Di Cicco, wrote a blurb that appears on the back of Scheier’s book. “The connections are out in the open. It’s not shadowy backroom guessing on who might have known who or who slept with who,” observes poet George Murray (The Rush to Here), who runs the leading Canadian book blog Bookninja, and has been a GGLA jury member himself. Brandt has responded by calling accusations of bias “absurd” and motivated by envy. Murray — whose website has been flooded by negative commentary on the apparent conflicts of interest — has called for the Council to institute ethics guidelines, because “we’re talking about public money here.”