Rachel McCrum

The 2020 Montreal Poetry Prize, whose criterion for submission is an original English-language poem of under forty lines, received a staggering 4,645 international entries. An international jury of ten poets work to create individual shortlists, which are then submitted to the year’s judge.

Why a collection of selected poems now? My first question to Carmine Starnino about his new book Dirty Words is perhaps a little unfair. But I’m curious as to what has motivated a retrospective of five collections at this point in his career. A collection of selected poems always has the feel of an interval. A pause, a reflection. A summary, even.

The Headless Man is Montreal-based writer Peter Dubé’s twelfth book. His previous publications encompass novels, collections of short fiction, a novella, essays, three edited anthologies of gay and queer literature, and – like The Headless Man – a book-length prose poem. This pluralistic approach to form is mirrored in a polymath’s interest in the world.