Starnino wins the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry

Gaspereau Press is pleased to announce that Carmine Starnino’s poetry collection, This Way Out has won the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry.

The A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry is sponsored by Jacques Nolin and awarded by the Quebec Writers’ Federation. The prize is granted each year to an English-language poet residing in the province of Quebec. The award was presented at the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s Awards Gala on November 17, 2009, at the Lion D’or, Montreal.



Carmine Starnino’s latest collection of poems, This Way Out, is full of lyrical escapes, exits and embarkations that set out to measure degrees of belonging and proximity to being at home. With his close attention to sound and ease of comparison, Starnino tries on voices and costumes for size, revisiting his childhood stomping grounds and current neighbourhood bars, reliving teenage haircuts and marvelling at the skill of the local butcher. Counterbalancing his own search for place, Starnino delights in locating in other people and favourite objects their aptitude for simply being themselves.

Carmine Starnino is a poet, essayist, critic and editor of Signal Editions, the poetry imprint at Véhicule Press. His collection, With English Subtitles (GP, 2004), won the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry and the 2006 Bressani Prize. This Way Out was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2009. Starnino lives in Montreal.