
Carmine Starnino is a
Canadian
Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
,
essayist
An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...
,
educator
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...
and
editor
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...
.
Biography
He was born in 1970 in
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
,
Quebec
Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
, into an
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
heritage. His first poetry collection ''The New World'' (1997) was nominated for the 1997
A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry
The Quebec Writers' Federation Awards are a series of Canadian literary awards, presented annually by the Quebec Writers' Federation to the best works of literature in English by writers from Quebec. They were known from 1988 to 1998 as the QSPELL ...
and the 1997
Gerald Lampert Award
The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award is an annual literary award presented by the League of Canadian Poets to the best volume of poetry published by a first-time poet. It is presented in honour of poetry promoter Gerald Lampert. Each winner receive ...
. His second collection ''Credo'' (2000) won the 2001 Canadian Authors Associate Prize for Poetry and the 2001 David McKeen Award for Poetry. He has also written ''A Lover's Quarrel'' (2004), a book of essays on
Canadian
Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
poetry, and ''With English Subtitles'' (2004), a third collection of poems, which won a
Bressani Award
The Francesco Giuseppe Bressani Literary Prize is a biennial award created by the Italian Cultural Centre Society of Vancouver in 1986. It was created to promote and honour Canadian writers of Italian descent. There are $1000 prizes for poetry ...
and the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. Starnino's fourth collection, ''This Way Out'' (2009), was nominated for a
Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry and, again, won the
A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. Starnino went on to publish ''Lazy Bastardism'' (2012), a collection of essays and reviews, and ''Leviathan'' (2016) a book of poems. His most recent book, published in 2020, ''Dirty Words: Selected Poems 1997-2016,'' was awarded the inaugural
Pier Giorgio Di Cicco
Pier Giorgio Di Cicco (July 5, 1949 - December 22, 2019) was an Italian-Canadian poet. In 2005, he became the second Poet Laureate of Toronto.
Born in Arezzo, Italy, his family immigrated to Canada in 1952. Di Cicco was brought up in several Nor ...
Poetry Award, and was praised by the jury for having "expanded the English language by bringing Italian words into its matrix."
He is the editor of Signal Editions, the poetry imprint of Montreal-based Véhicule Press, and was formerly Editor-in-Chief of ''
Maisonneuve'' and Senior Editor of ''
Reader's Digest Canada''. Starnino left his post as Deputy Editor of ''
The Walrus
''The Walrus'' is an independent, nonprofit Canadian media organization. It is multi-platform and produces an eight-issue-per-year magazine and online editorial content that includes current affairs, fiction, poetry, and podcasts, a nation ...
'' in 2019 to move back to Montreal, and currently serves as the magazine's Editor-in-Chief.
Starnino is well known for the provocative nature of his criticism and pointedness of his opinions, which have incited a variety of heated counter-criticisms from other poets and
critiques.
Bibliography
Poetry
* ''The New World.'' Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1997.
* ''Credo.'' Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000.
* ''With English Subtitles.'' Kentville, N.S.:
Gaspereau Press
Gaspereau Press is a Canadian book publishing company, based in Kentville, Nova Scotia. Established in 1997 by Andrew Steeves and Gary Dunfield, the company's philosophy emphasizes "making books that reinstate the importance of the book as a ph ...
, 2004.
* ''This Way Out.'' Kentville, N.S.:
Gaspereau Press
Gaspereau Press is a Canadian book publishing company, based in Kentville, Nova Scotia. Established in 1997 by Andrew Steeves and Gary Dunfield, the company's philosophy emphasizes "making books that reinstate the importance of the book as a ph ...
, 2009.
* ''Leviathan.'' Kentville, N.S.:
Gaspereau Press
Gaspereau Press is a Canadian book publishing company, based in Kentville, Nova Scotia. Established in 1997 by Andrew Steeves and Gary Dunfield, the company's philosophy emphasizes "making books that reinstate the importance of the book as a ph ...
, 2016.
* ''Dirty Words: Selected Poems 1997-2016.'' Kentville, N.S.:
Gaspereau Press
Gaspereau Press is a Canadian book publishing company, based in Kentville, Nova Scotia. Established in 1997 by Andrew Steeves and Gary Dunfield, the company's philosophy emphasizes "making books that reinstate the importance of the book as a ph ...
, 2020.
Essays
*''A Lover's Quarrel.'' Erin, Ont.: Porcupine's Quill, 2004.
*''Lazy Bastardism.'' Kentville, N.S.:
Gaspereau Press
Gaspereau Press is a Canadian book publishing company, based in Kentville, Nova Scotia. Established in 1997 by Andrew Steeves and Gary Dunfield, the company's philosophy emphasizes "making books that reinstate the importance of the book as a ph ...
, 2012.
As editor
* ''David Solway: Essays on His Works.'' Toronto:
Guernica
Guernica (, ), officially Gernika () in Basque, is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the municipality of Gernika-Lumo ...
, 2001.
* ''The New Canon.'' Montreal:
Véhicule Press
The Vehicule Poets was a collective formed in Montreal in the 1970s by poets Endre Farkas, Artie Gold, Tom Konyves, Claudia Lapp, John McAuley, Stephen Morrissey and Ken Norris, who shared an interest in experimental American poetry and European ...
, 2005.
* ''John Glassco and the Other Montreal.'' Victoria:
Frog Hollow Press, 2011.
* ''The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2012.'' Toronto:
Tightrope
Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope ...
, 2012.
* ''The Essential Charles Bruce''. Erin Mills:
The Porcupine's Quill
The Porcupine's Quill is an independent publishing company in Erin, Ontario, Canada. The Porcupine's Quill publishes contemporary Canadian literature, including poetry, fiction, art and literary criticism. It is owned and operated by Tim and El ...
, 2018.
References
20th-century Canadian poets
Poets from Montreal
Living people
Canadian male poets
20th-century Canadian male writers
Year of birth missing (living people)
{{Canada-poet-stub