The Golden Tibetan Antelope Poetry Prize

T H E G O L D E N T I B E T A N Antelope Poetry Prize, which may be, among poetry prizes, the most beautifully named in the world, is awarded periodically by the organising committee of the Qinghai Lake International Poetry Festival. The prize was established by Jidi Majia, now one of China’s foremost poets and the chair of the China Writers Association, when he was governor of the province and first established the Qinghai festival a dozen years ago. 

The prize recognises the body of work of an international poet whose work has made a difference in their homeland and beyond it, and whose work touches on themes of justice and the preservation of the wild and the human spirit; it has been given to Syrian poet Adonis, Argentine poet Juan Hermann, Indigenous American poet Simon Ortiz, and San Franciscan beat poet Jack Hirschman. 

And I feel honoured and astonished to be receiving this great prize this year.

The prize is named for the Tibetan antelope, or chiru, an antelope more or less endemic to the Tibetan Plateau, a beast of moderate size and lavish horns, inhabitant of the high plateau, overhunted, near to extinction, for the extraordinary softness of its underfur (shahtoosh), used to weave shawls of great price given as wedding gifts by the Persians. The animal is now protected in China, and its numbers, though perilous, are recovering.  

Seems an apt symbol of the poet and of poetry, endangered and modest and extravagant all at once.

The prize comes with a purse of 50,000 RMB ($10K USD), and the publication of a book of one hundred of the poet’s poems, translated into Chinese, along with a selection of the poet’s prose and some critical essays on the poet. I’ve named the new book House of Thieves, after an early poem—about being at once a father, a citizen of the daily world, and a poet. The prize is awarded at the Qinghai Lake International Poetry Festival in Qinghai, northwestern China, which takes place this year 26 to 30 June. I’m called upon to make a “substantial” acceptance speech, and this year’s conference theme is the uses of poetry in the conservation of diversity in nature and culture. I’ve just finished my speech, which I wrote as a sayable essay: “The Six Gifts,” I’ve called it. I’m very glad to get that teaching rubric of mine properly said on “paper” at last. It will be published in China in English and Chinese, and I’ll publish it here a little later on. I may, in fact, build a book on its foundation.

As well as making the acceptance speech, I’ll get to participate in readings and panel discussions and visits to schools and other institutions. 

I’ll be glad to be in Qinghai, and later in Xichang, with Jodie Williams, our first trip outside the country since the pandemic.