Clemens Starck

Clemens Starck (1937 – March 21, 2024) was an American poet.

He is the author of seven books of poems, and recipient of the 1996 William Stafford Memorial Poetry Award[1] and the Oregon Book Award for Journeyman's Wages. Two of his other books were also finalists for the Oregon Book Award.[2]

Several of his poems, including "One of the Locals", were read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer's Almanac.[3] A chapter dedicated to Starck's poetry, “Clemens Starck: ‘poems in my head, a hammer in my hand,” is within Durable Goods: Appreciations of Oregon Poets,[4] written by Erik Muller and published by Mountains & Rivers Press in 2017.

Jon Broderick, founder of the annual FisherPoets Gathering in Astoria, Oregon, cites Starck as the inspiration for the festival. "Clem wrote poetry about work. I had never considered doing that. I immediately thought about the fishermen I knew who wrote, and decided to get a few people together to give it a try."[5]

In 2018, Empty Bowl a small independent Pacific Northwest press, initiated a new series focused on collected and selected poems from Pacific Northwest writers. The series was launched with Finn Wilcox's Too Late to Turn Back Now: Prose and Poems. Starck's Cathedrals and Parking Lots: Collected Poems is the second book in this series.[6]