A University of Guelph professor has been shortlisted for the 2016 Trillium Book Award for Poetry.

Prof. Madhur Anand, School of Environmental Sciences, was shortlisted for her debut collection of poems, A New Index for Predicting Catastrophes, published in 2015.

The finalists were announced May 25, and awards will be presented June 22 in Toronto by Michael Coteau, Ontario minister of tourism, culture and sport. The winner will receive a $10,000 prize.

The Trillium Book Awards, considered among Canada’s most prestigious literary prizes, were established by the provincial government in 1987 to recognize Ontario writers and writing.

“I was very surprised to get the phone call telling me my book had been nominated,” Anand said.

“I jumped up and down and shouted, which scared my toddler and confused my nine-year old. These are all amazing writers and books, and I am thrilled and honoured.”

Anand’s poetry has appeared in literary magazines across North America and in the anthology The Shape of Content: Creative Writing in Mathematics and Science.

Her debut collection explores how connections among art, science and environment can enlighten and inform who we are.

At U of G, Anand studies ecological change – including threatened species, communities and ecosystems — under globalization and climate change.

The other Trillium Book award nominees in the English poetry category are Soraya Peerbaye, a graduate of U of G’s MFA program in creative writing, for Tell: poems for a girlhood; and Damian Rogers, for Dear Leader.