TORONTO Karen Solie was named the Canadian winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize at a gala ceremony in Toronto on Thursday night, eight years after first being nominated for the country's most prestigious award for poetry.

Solie, 43, was honoured for her collection Pigeon, published by House of Anansi Press. The other poets on the Canadian shortlist were Kate Hall of Montreal, who was nominated for her debut, The Certainty Dream, and the late P.K. Page, for Coal and Roses.

Eilean Ni Chuilleanain was awarded the international prize for her collection The Sun-fish (published by the Gallery Press). She is an associate professor of English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin.