Seagull Books publication ‘Psyche Running' wins Griffin Poetry Prize for Durs Grünbein, Karen Leeder

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05-06-2025

Psyche Running, translated by Karen Leeder and written in German by Durs Grünbein, is the winner of the 2025 Griffin Poetry Prize. The prize-winning volume of poetry has been published by Seagull Books of India. The cash prize of C$130,000 will be divided between Leeder and Grünbein, with 60 per cent going to the translator and 40 per cent to the author. Each of the other finalists received C$10,000.
The judges said, 'Durs Grünbein's Psyche Running is a brilliant overview and selection of a poet who satisfies our hunger to be serious, as again and again he finds himself 'between words and things.' Karen Leeder's adept translations establish a new version of Grünbein in English: universal, lyrical, philosophical.'
Karen Leeder is a writer, scholar, and translator of contemporary German literature. She is the Schwarz-Taylor Chair of the German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. In 2023, she began a three-year Einstein Fellowship at the Free University of Berlin for her project AfterWords. Durs Grünbein was born in Dresden in 1962 and now lives in Berlin and Rome. Since 2005, he has been a professor of poetics and aesthetics at the Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf.
Upon receiving the Prize, Leeder said, 'It is such an honour to be the recipient of this very special prize. We are so grateful to Seagull Books for backing us. What a privilege to bring this amazing poet into English.' Grünbein added, 'Everybody is now talking about this famous publishing house in Kolkata and the publisher behind all the books: You, Naveen [Kishore, publisher], only you. Thank you for believing in me from the beginning.'
The international Griffin Poetry Prize was founded in 2000 to recognise excellence in poetry. The prize is for first edition books of poetry written in, or translated into, English and submitted from anywhere in the world. Judges Nick Laird, Anne Michaels, and Tomasz Różycki read 578 books of poetry, including 47 translations from 20 languages, submitted by 219 publishers from 17 different countries.
The other books on the shortlist were:
The Great Zoo, translated by Aaron Coleman from the Spanish, written by Nicolás Guillén
Kiss the Eyes of Peace, translated by Brian Henry from the Slovenian, written by Tomaž Šalamun
Scattered Snows, to the North, Carl Phillips
Modern Poetry, Diane Seuss