Ottawa poet wins national LGBTQ writing award

An Ottawa poet is one of three finalists contending for a national award for emerging LGBTQ writers.

BenLadouceur'spoetry collection Otteris up for the$4,000 Writers' Trust of Canada's 2018 Dayne Ogilvie Prize, presented annuallyto awriterwhose published work demonstrates great literary promise.

Ladouceurpreviously won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award in 2016 and Earle Birney Poetry Prize in 2012.

The Canterbury High Schoolgraduate told CBC Radio's All in a Dayhe focuses on makinghis poetry accessible to people who normally have trouble understanding the art form.

• Listen to Ladouceur'sinterview withAll in a Dayhost Alan Neal

His latest collection is filled with water imagery and themes of longing.

"I think wanting is a pretty necessary component to poem producing," Ladouceursaid Friday.

"When you feel like something is missing, then you are treating the poem as maybe the thing that can fill that missing space."

2 other finalists

The other two finalists areTrishSalahfrom Kingston, Ont., and Joshua Whitehead fromPeguisFirst Nation on Treaty 1 territory in Manitoba.

Salahis a professor of gender studies at Queen's University and Whitehead is working toward a PhD in Indigenous literatures and cultures at the University of Calgary.

The finalists were selected by a jury composed of authors Ali Blythe, Greg Kearneyand Shannon Webb-Campbell.

The winner will be announced at a ceremony in Toronto Saturday evening.