Picture an under-the-sea themed high school dance: faux seaweed dangling from the ceiling, shimmering waves of wrapping paper, a TV screen aquarium. Toss in a slew of Canada’s top literary names – Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje – and trays of petite quiches and voila, you have the Griffin Poetry Prize 2015.

Held on June 4, the same evening as the Power Ball, the debaucherous art fundraiser at the Power Plant gallery, the Griffin Poetry Prize was slightly more tame. And reasonably so; the event, held in the Distillery District’s Fermenting Cellar, is a night to celebrate poets from Canada and around the world, with two $65,000 prizes handed out. This year, the winners included The Stairwell by Irish poet Michael Longley and Blue Sonoma by Canadian Jane Munro.

For a glimpse of the A-list literary soiree, check out Vv Magazine’s gallery below.