Canadian Literature & Poetry
in English
Black Canadian Literature & Poetry
African Canadian and Caribbean Canadian Literatures & Poetry: Anthologies
Black Writers Matter
An anthology of African-Canadian writing, it offers a
cross-section of established writers and newcomers to the literary world who tackle
contemporary and pressing issues with prose.
All contributions are written from the first-person perspectve
and include writings by Simone Makeba Dalton, Cason Sharpe, Rowan McCandless, Phillip Dwight
Morgan, Fatuma Adar, Whitney French, Christina Brobby, and others.
Revival: An Anthology of Black Canadian Writing
PR 9194.5
.B55 R48 2006
Stacks
Eyeing the North Star: Directions in African-Canadian
Literature
PR 9194.5
.B55 E93 1997
Stacks
In the Black: New African Canadian Literature
In a mix of short fiction, poetry, dub poetry and hip hop,
some of Black Canada’s foremost writers from across generations explore history,
community, love, and healing.
The collection includes writing from Catherine Bain, George
Elliott Clarke, Gayle Gonsalves, Joanne C. Hillhouse, Clifton Joseph, Dwayne Morgan, Motion,
Jelani Nias (J-Wyze), Djanet Sears, Mansa Trotman, and the editor, Althea Prince.
PS 8235 .B5
I5 2012
Stacks
Queer Returns: Essays on Multiculturalism, Diaspora and Black
Studies
The essays question what it means to live in a multicultural
society, how diaspora impacts identity and culture and how the categories of queer and Black
and Black queer complicate the political claims of multiculturalism, diaspora and queer
politics.
HQ 76.25
.W36 2016
Stacks
The Great Black North: Contemporary African-Canadian Poetry
The collection documents the historic heritage of Black
Canadian poets: George Elliott Clarke, Ian Keteku, Lillian Allen, Afua Cooper, Olive Senior,
Frederick Ward, Lorna Goodison, Tanya Evanson, Pamela Mordecai, Harold Head, and many others.
The poems in the anthology are derived from oral and written
sources.
PR 9194.5
.B55 G74 2013
Stacks
The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology
An comprehensive anthology of fiction and nonfiction writings
by Black authors from the Prairies, from nineteenthth-century fur traders and pioneers to
avant-garde writers of the present day.
Includes correspondence, memoirs, excerpts from
autobiographies, political treatises and writings, photographs, interviews, short stories,
poems and other types of writing from Daniel T. Williams, Mildred Jane Lewis Ware, George
Washington Slater, Jr. Lawrence Hill, Esi Edugyan, Miranda Martini, and other contributors.
The Black Notes: Fresh Writing by Black Women and Girls
A collection consising of stories and poems written by twenty
Black women and girls.
PR 9194.5
.W6 B53 2016
Stacks
Nine Black Women: An Anthology of Nineteenth-Century Writers
from the United States, Canada, Bermuda, and the Caribbean
History & Interpretation
Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature
Presents a history of the African-Canadian literature and oral
cultures, identifies African-Canadian literature’s distinguishing characteristics,
argues for its relevance to both African Diasporic Black and Canadian Studies, and critiques
several of its key creators and texts.
Authors whose work is examined in the book are André Alexis,
Dionne Brand, Austin Clarke, Claire Harris, and M. Nourbese Philip.
Directions Home: Approaches to African-Canadian Literature
Building on the discoveries of his critically acclaimed
Odysseys Home, Clarke showcases the importance of little-known texts, including church
histories and slave narratives, and offers studies of autobiography, crime and punishment,
jazz poetics, and musical composition.
Blackening Canada: Diaspora, Race, Multiculturalism
Focusing on the work of Black, diasporic writers in Canada,
(including Dionne Brand, Austin Clarke, and Tessa McWatt), the author investigates the manner
in which literature can transform conceptions of nation and diaspora through a consideration
of literary representation, public discourse, and the language of political protest.
Black Like Who? Writing Black Canada
By examining hip-hop, film, literature, social unrest, sports,
music and the electronic media, Walcott assesses the role of Black Canadians in defining
Canada and also argues critically against any notion of an essentialist Canadian Black
identity.
The Past Is Present: the African-Canadian Experience in Lawrence
Hill’s Fiction
A comprehensive analysis of Hill’s historical fictions.
PR 9199.3
.H5349 Z74 2012
Stacks
Why We Write: Conversations with African Canadian Poets and
Novelists: Interviews
African Canadian creative writers discuss the complexities of
the writing experience.
Includes interviews with: Ayanna Black, Austin Clarke, George
Elliot Clarke, Wayde Compton, Afua Cooper, Bernadette Dyer, Cecil Foster, Claire Harris,
Lawrence Hill, Nalo Hopkinson, Suzette Mayr, Pamela Mordecai, M. NourbeSe Philip, Althea
Prince, and Robert Sandiford.
PR 9194.5
.B55 W49 2006
Stacks
Luminous Ink: Writers on Writing in Canada
A collection of original pieces by some of Canada’s best
known writers. The essays ask, and attempt to answer, what it means
to be a writer in Canada, what the literature of today can tell us about Canada’s
social arrangements, its political and aesthetic shapes, and its preoccupations.
Contributors include Margaret Atwood, George Elliott Clarke,
Camilla Gibb, Rawi Hage, Lawrence Hill, Greg Hollingshead, Lee Maracle, Lisa Moore, Michael
Ondaatje, Marie-Helaine Poitras, Pascale Quiviger, Nino Ricci, Eden Robinson, Madeleine
Thien, Judith Thompson, M.G. Vassanji, Rita Wong, and others.
PR 9184.6
.L86 2018
Stacks
“Canada in Black Transnational Studies: Austin Clarke,
Affective Affiliations, and the Cross-Border Poetics of Caribbean Canadian Writing”
This chapter in Beyond Understanding Canada: Transnational
Perspectives on Canadian Literature, examines Caribbean-Canadian writing within the
larger context of “black transational space.”
PR 9184.3
.B39 2017
Stacks
Beyond the Canebrakes: Caribbean Women Writers in Canada
Essays and interviews that examine the work of West-Indian
women writers living in Canada.
The essays examine the work of literary artists Claire Harris,
Olive Senior, Lillian Allen, Afua Cooper, Dionne Brand, M. Nourbese Philip, Nalo Hopkinson,
Pamela Mordecai, and Makeda Silvera as an integral not marginal element of the Canadian and
world literature canons.
PR 9188.2
.C37 B49 2008
Stacks
Settling Down and Settling Up: The Second Generation in Black
Canadian and Black British Women’s Writing
Comparing second generation children of immigrants in Black
Canadian and Black British women’s writing, the book extends discourses of diaspora and
postcolonialism by expanding recent theory on movement and border crossing.
Considering migration and settlement as complex,
interrelated processes that inform each other across multiple generations and geographies,
Medovarski challenges the gendered constructions of nationhood and diaspora with a particular
focus on Canadian and British black women writers, including Dionne Brand, Esi Edugyan, and
Zadie Smith.
Biographies & Memoirs
Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada
Hill reveals his struggle to understand his own
personal and racial identity. He describes the ambiguity involved in searching for his
identity.
PR 9199.3
.H5349 Z47 2001
Stacks
Bibliographies
Caribbean and South-Asian Writers in Canada: A Bibliography of
Their Works and of English-Language Criticism
Brief biographies, chronological list of fiction books, parts
of books, periodical articles, book reviews, and dissertations that critique the work of
selected writers from the Caribbean or South Asia and have resided in Canada for at least
part of their writing careers.
The authors included in the bibliography are André Alexis,
Austin C. Clarke, M.G. Vassanji and many others.
Z 1376 .C37
K36 2007
Reference
A Black Canadian Bibliography
A bibliography of works by and about the diverse peoples of
African descent living in Canada. It includes references to creative literary works.
Z 1395 .N39
F73 2000
Reference
Literary Writings by [Black People] in Canada: A Preliminary
Survey
The profiles in this pamphlet were compiled between 1979–
1986 so it does not reflect the current scholarship. Gives a brief biography of each author
followed by a list of publications.
Z 1377 .B62
E44
Reference
reviewed & updated 27 April 2022 | compiled by Agatha Barc, MI