Glen Downie's collection of poetry, Loyalty Management, has captured the 2008 Toronto Book Award.

It marks the first time since 1999 that a book of poetry has grabbed the $11,000 prize, given out annually since 1974 to a book of "literary or artistic merit evocative of Toronto."

The winner in 1999 was Richard Outram's Benedict Abroad.

Downie's book is described as "undeniably Torontonian ... richly textured and utterly readable."

The book won over four other nominees:

• Helpless by Barbara Gowdy.
• Long Story Short by Elyse Friedman.
• Soucouyant by Davide Chariandy.
• And Beauty Answers, a biography by Elspeth Cameron.

Loyalty Management is Downie's sixth book of poetry.

The jury praised the book as evoking "vibrant images of objects and relationships, filtered through layers of immense kindness, a shrewd eye for deceit and an established technical skill."

Downie, who was born in Winnipeg, worked in cancer care for many years in Vancouver and now lives in Toronto.

In 1999, he served as writer-in-residence at the Medical Humanities Program of Dalhousie University's Faculty of Medicine in Halifax.

Michael Redhill's Consolation was last year's winner.