George Elliott Clarke

• Cinema
• Graphic Texts
• Indigenous Literature
• Jewish Studies
• Literary and Critical Theory
• Opera Libretti & Songwriting
• Political/Philosophical Texts
• Pop/Pulp Culture Works
• Romantic and Victorian Literature
• South Asian Literature in English

Biography

George Elliott Clarke was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, near the Black Loyalist and Afro-Metis community of Three Mile Plains, in 1960.  A graduate of the University of Waterloo (B.A., Hons.,1984), Dalhousie University (M.A., 1989), and Queen’s University (Ph.D., 1993), he is now the inaugural E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto.  An Assistant Professor of English and Canadian Studies at Duke University, North Carolina, 1994-1999, Clarke also served as the Seagrams Visiting Chair in Canadian Studies at McGill University, 1998-1999, and as a Noted Scholar at the University of British Columbia (2002) and as a Visiting Scholar at Mount Allison University (2005), and as the 27th William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies at Harvard University (2013-14).  He has also worked as a researcher (Ontario Provincial Parliament, 1982-83), editor (Imprint, University of Waterloo, 1984-85, and The Rap, Halifax, NS, 1985-87), social worker (Black United Front of Nova Scotia, 1985-86), parliamentary aide (House of Commons, 1987-91), and newspaper columnist (The Daily News, Halifax, NS, 1988-89, and The Halifax Herald, Halifax, NS, 1992-2016).  He lives in Toronto, Ontario, but he also owns land in Nova Scotia.  His many honours include the Portia White Prize for Artistic Achievement (1998), Governor-General’s Award for Poetry (2001), the National Magazine Gold Medal for Poetry (2001), the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award (2004), the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellowship Prize (2005), the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction (2006), the Eric Hoffer Book Award for Poetry (2009), appointment to the Order of Nova Scotia (2006), appointment to the Order of Canada at the rank of Officer (2008), appointment as Poet Laureate of the City of Toronto (2012-15), appointment as Parliamentary [National] Poet Laureate (2016-17), appointment as a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (2017), and the receipt of eight honorary doctorates.

Education

Queen's University, 1990-1993: Doctor of Philosophy degree in English.  Dissertation:  “The Similarity of Margins: A Comparative Study of the Development of English Canadian and African American Poetry and Poetics.”  Supervisor: John P. Matthews.

Dalhousie University, 1986-1989: Master of Arts degree in English.  Thesis:  “The Pantomime of Metaphor: Performance in the Collected Works of Michael Ondaatje.”  Supervisor: Patricia Monk.

University of Waterloo, 1979-1984: Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English. 

Distinctions

7th Parliamentary Poet Laureate, appointed by the Speakers of the House of Commons and the Senate of Canada, 2016-17.

4th Poet Laureate of Toronto, appointed by City Council, 2012-15.

Advisory Board of the Institute of Canadian Studies, 2008-.

E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature, University of Toronto, 2003-.

($500,000 endowment provided by Dr. Sonia Labatt and Victoria University.)

Life Membership, The Ontario Poetry Society, 2024.

Named a “Most Notable” Alumnus of Dalhousie University (2024).

https://www.dal.ca/alumni/news-and-spotlights/notable-alumni.html#arts-and-media

The Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal, 2022.

Excellence in the Arts Award, Canadian Civil Liberties Association, 2012.

The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, 2012.

Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, Acadia University, 2012.

Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, University of Windsor, 2010.

Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Royal Military College of Canada, 2009.

Eric Hoffer Book Award for Poetry, The US Review / Hopewell Publications, 2009.

Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, Saint Mary’s University, 2008.

William P. Hubbard Award for Race Relations, Toronto City Council, 2008.

Appointment, Officer, Order of Canada, July 1, 2008.

Appointment, Honorary Fellow of the Haliburton Society, University of King’s College, 2008.

Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, University of Waterloo, 2006.

Appointment, Order of Nova Scotia, 2006.

Frontiera Poesis Premiul [“Poets Without Borders” Prize] Festivalului International “Poesis”—$1000 (Romanian Lei) and statuette—Poesis magazine—Satu Mare, Romania, 2006.

Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction—$1500, Atlantic [Canada] Book Awards, 2006.

University of Toronto Black Alumni Association Faculty Award, 2005.

Africa Renaissance Award, Planet Africa Television, Toronto, 2005.

Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, University of Alberta, 2005.

Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellow—$225,000, Trudeau Foundation, Montreal, 2005-08.

Undergraduate Teaching Award, Students’ Administrative Council and Association of Part-Time Undergraduate Students, University of Toronto, 2005.

Harbourfront Centre (Toronto) Fresh Ground Commission—$20,000, co-received with composer dd Jackson to compose the libretto and opera, Trudeau: Long March / Shining Path, 2005.

Lukwik and Estelle Jus Memorial Human Rights Prize, University of Toronto Alumni Association, 2004.

Gold Award for Poetry—$1,500, National Magazine Foundation, 2002.

Governor-General’s Literary Award for Poetry—$15,000, Government of Canada, 2001.

Outstanding Writer Award, Black Film & Video Network, Toronto, 2000.

Arts Alumni Achievement Award, University of Waterloo, 1999.

Portia White Prize—$25,000, Nova Scotia Arts Council, 1998.

Bellagio Center Fellow—Rockefeller Foundation, New York City, 1998.

Arts Grant 'B' Award—$12,000, Canada Council for the Arts, 1997.

Archibald Lampman Award for Poetry, Ottawa Independent Writers, 1991.

Bliss Carman Poetry Award, Second Prize, The Banff Centre, School of Fine Arts, 1983.

First Prize, Adult Poetry, Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia, 1981.

Publications

Scholarly  

Books 

Black Activist, Black Scientist, Black Icon: The Autobiography of Dr. Howard D. McCurdy.  By Howard McCurdy.  Edited by George Elliott Clarke.  Halifax: Nimbus Books, 2023.  Edited autobiography. 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qyrg6vf2tfma2efeqwr85/black-activist-interior.pdf?rlkey=cb8iq3ztlc1oaitr4or8xt5qu&dl=0 

Whiteout: How Canada Cancels Blackness.  Montréal: Véhicule Press, 2023.  Essay collection.   

Ed., Locating Home: The First African-Canadian Novel and Verse Collections.  Toronto: Tightrope Books, 2017.  Anthology. 

Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002.  Reissue in “Canada 150 Collection” (as one of top 150 books in Canadian scholarship).  Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017.  [Available also as print-on-demand paperback.] 

Directions Home: Approaches to African-Canadian Literature.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012. 

Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002.  Computer Braille Edition.  Toronto: CNIB, 2003.  [12 volumes in Braille] 

Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. 

Co-ed., Border Lines: Contemporary Poems in English.  Toronto: Copp-Clark, 1995.  Anthology. Sound recording.  Read by Jacqui Bishop.  Vancouver, BC: B.C. College and Institute Book Services, 1998.  [12 sound cassettes  (16 hours)] 

Ed., Eyeing the North Star: Directions in African-Canadian Literature.  Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1997.  Anthology. 

Co-ed., Border Lines: Contemporary Poems in English.  Toronto: Copp-Clark, 1995.  Anthology.  [Eds., J.A. Wainwright, Clarke, Ruth Grogan, Victor Li, Robert Ross, Ann Wallace] 

Ed., Fire on the Water: An Anthology of Black Nova Scotian Writing.  2 vols.  Lawrencetown Beach, NS:  Pottersfield Press, 1991-1992.  Anthology. 

Monographs 

The Quest for a “National” Nationalism:  E.J. Pratt’s Epic Ambition, “Race” Consciousness, and the Contradictions of Canadian Identity.  St. John’s (NL): Breakwater Books, 2021. 

On Entering the Echo Chamber of Epic:  My “Canticles” vs Pound’s Cantos.  [Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poets Lecture Series, Vancouver Island University, October 21, 2015]  Nanaimo: Vancouver Island University—Arbutus Editions, 2016.   

Treason of the Black Intellectuals?  Working Paper of the Third Annual Seagram Lecture Presented on November 4, 1998.  Montreal: McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, 1999. 

Eyeing the North Star: Perspectives of African-Canadian Literature.  Ambassador's Lecture Series.  [No. 19]  Washington DC: Canadian Embassy/Ambassade du Canada, 1997. 

Journals 

Guest Editor.  African American Review.  Special Issue on African Canadianité.  51.3 (Fall 2018). 

Guest Editor.  Kola.  20.2 (Fall 2008). 

Guest Editor.  Kola.  20.1 (Spring/Nisan 2008).   

Guest Editor.  Kola.  21.1 (Spring/Nisan 2009).   

Guest Editor.  The Dalhousie Review. Africadian Special Issue.  77.2 (Summer 1997).  [1999] 

Articles 

Refereed: 

What a (Non-) Difference  a Half-Century Makes: Juxtaposing the African-Canadian Verse Anthologies of 1973 and 2022.”  [Forthcoming from Edward Elgar Publishing, ed. Sneja Gunew.] 

“Coloured ‘Extras’ & Spotlit Whites:  Spectating ‘Race’ in Slings & Arrows.”  [Forthcoming in vol. eds. Don Moore & Kailin Wright, University of Toronto Press.] 

“Is ‘Historiographic Ethnofiction’ Perpetually Tripped Up By Facts? Spy Invisible Blackness in Ondaatje’s Slaughter; Audit Muted History in Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues.”  Land Deep In Time: Canadian Historiographic Ethnofiction.  Eds. Weronika Suchaka and Hartmut Lutz.  Gottingen, Germany: Brill—Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht Unipress, 2023.  293-306. 

“Assembling the Afro-Métis Syllabus:  Some Preliminary Reading.”  Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien.  42 (2022):  10-41. 

“Alice Munro’s Black Bottom; or Black Tints and Euro Hints in Lives of Girls and Women.”  In Alice Munro Country: Essays on Her Works I.  Ed. J.R. Tim Struthers.  Oakville (ON): Guernica Editions, 2020.  207-235.  Reprint. 

“Ian Fleming’s Canadian Cities.”  Literature and the Glocal City: Reshaping the English Canadian Imaginary.” Ed. Ana Maria Fraile-Marcos.  New York: Routledge, 2014.  160-181.  Rpt.  Paperback.  New York: Routledge, 2020. 

“On Pamela Mordecai’s ‘Passion Plays’: A Plea for Their Performance.”  Studies in Canadian Literature.  44.1.  2019.  5-29. 

“The Constitution as Muse?  Four Poets Respond (Tacitly) to the World-View of The British North America Act (1867).”  Review of Constitutional Studies/Revue d’études constitutionnelles.  22.3  (2017) [2018]:  289-324. 

“Why Not an ‘African-Canadian’ Epic?  Lessons from Pratt and Walcott.”  Comparative Literature for the New Century.  Eds. Giulia de Gasperi and Joseph Pivato.  Kingston (ON) & Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018.  117-152. 

“The Holocaust Witness as Absurdist:  J.J. Steinfeld’s Ironic Ire.”  J.J. Steinfeld:  Essays on His Works.  Ed. Sandra Singer.  Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2017.  221-239. 

“Toward Establishing an—or the—“Archive” of African Canadian Literature.”  Editing as Cultural Practice in Canada.  Eds. Dean Irvine and Smaro Kamboureli.  Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2016.  41-56. 

“White Judges, Black Hoods: Hanging-as-Lynching in Three Canadian True-Crime Texts.”  Canadian Law Library Review.  41.2 (2016):  10-19. 

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/15402cfce746b9e4?projector=1 

“Jazzing Up Opera: A Defence of Québécité.”   Opera in a Multicultural World:  Coloniality, Culture, Performance.  Eds. Mary I. Ingraham, Joseph K. So, and Roy Moodley.  London: Routledge, 2015.  193-212. 

“Alice Munro’s Black Bottom; or Black Tints and Euro Hints in Lives of Girls and Women.”  In Alice Munro: Reminiscence, Interpretation, Adaptation, and Comparison.  Eds. Buchholtz Mirosława and Eugenia Sojka.  Frankfurt,  Berlin: Peter Lang Verlag, 2015. 147-71. 

“An Anatomy of the Originality of African-Canadian Thought.”  THE CLR JAMES JOURNAL 20:1–2, Fall 2014 :  65-82. 

doi: 10.5840/clrjames2014983 

“Ian Fleming’s Canadian Cities.”  Literature and the Glocal City: Reshaping the English Canadian Imaginary.” Ed. Ana Maria Fraile-Marcos.  New York: Routledge, 2014.  160-181. 

“On Selecting Irving Layton’s Seductive Invective; or, an Addendum to Trehearne.”  English Studies in Canada.  38.2.  June 2012 [2013].  103-36. 

“Bring Da Noise: The Poetics of Performance, chez d’bi young and Oni Joseph.” Listening Up, Writing Down, and Looking Beyond!  Eds. Susan Gingell and Wendy Roy.  Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2012.  53-76. 

“For a Multicultural, Multi-Faith, Multiracial Canada: A Manifesto.”  Unsettling Multiculturalism: Lands, Labours, Bodies.   Eds. May Chazan, Lisa Helps, Anna Stanley, Sonali Thakkar.   Toronto: Between the Lines.  2011.   51-57. 

“Sounding John Thompson’s White Noise.”  Studies in Canadian Literature.  36.2.  2011.  5-31. 

“Halifax, Hiroshima, and the Romance of Disaster.”  Shaping an Agenda for Atlantic Canada.  Eds. John G. Reid & Donald J. Savoie.  Halifax: Fernwood Press, 2011.  83-103. 

“‘Symposia’ in the Drama of Trey Anthony and Louise Delisle.”  Theatre Research in Canada. Ed. Ric Knowles.  3o.1-2 (2009):  1-16.   

“Strategies for Legitimizing Difference: Mixed-Race Resistance in the Works of Andrea Thompson and Lorena Gale, Two African-Canadian Writers.”  Canada: Images of a Post/National Society.  Eds. Gunilla Florby, Mark Shackleton, and Katri Suhonen.  Bruxelles: Peter Lang, 2009.  259-275. 

“ ‘How White Are Your Whites?’ :  A Response to Daniel Coleman’s White Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada.”  International Journal of Canadian Studies.  38 (2008): 208-220. 

“Repatriating Arthur Nortje.”  Canadian Cultural Exchange: Translation and Transculturation.  Eds. Norman Cheadle and Lucien Pelletier.  Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University, 2007.  121-138. 

“Anna Minerva Henderson: An Afro-New Brunswick Response to Canadian (Modernist) Poetry.”  Canadian Literature.  189 (Summer 2006): 32-48. 

“Does (Afro-) Caribbean-Canadian Literature Exist?  In the Caribbean?”  Journal of West Indian Literature.  14.1-2 (November 2005 [June 2006]): 260-302. 

“Towards a Pedagogy of African-Canadian Literature.”  Moveable Margins: The Shifting Spaces of Canadian Literature.  Ed. Chelva Kanaganayakam.  Toronto: TSAR, 2005.  47-64. 

"Must All Blackness Be American?: Locating Canada in Borden's 'Tightrope Time', or Nationalizing Gilroy's The Black Atlantic."  Canadian Ethnic Studies.  28.3 (1996):  56-71.  Reprinted in African-Canadian Theatre: Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English, Volume Two.  Ed. Maureen Moynagh.  Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2005.  11-28. 

 “’This is no hearsay’: Reading the Canadian Slave Narratives.”  Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada.  43.1  (Spring 2005): 7-32. 

“Raising Raced and Erased Executions in African-Canadian Literature: Or, Unearthing Angélique.”  Essays on Canadian Writing.  75 (Winter 2002):  30-61.  Reprinted in Racism, Eh? A Critical Inter-Disciplinary Anthology on Race in the Canadian Context.  Eds.  Camille A. Nelson and Charmaine A. Nelson.  North York, ON: Captus Press, 2004.  65-84. 

“Raising Raced and Erased Executions in African-Canadian Literature: Or, Unearthing Angélique.”  Essays on Canadian Writing.  75 (Winter 2002):  30-61. 

“Canadian Biraciality and Its “Zebra” Poetics.  Intertexts.  6.2 (Fall 2002):  203-231. 

“Embracing Beatrice Chancy, or In Defence of Poetry.”  The New Quarterly.  XX.3 (Fall/Winter 2000-2001):  14-24. 

“Harris, Phillip, Brand: Three Authors in Search of Literate Criticism.”  Journal of Canadian Studies.  35.1 (Spring 2000):  161-189. 

"Racing Shelley, or Reading The Cenci as a Gothic Slave Narrative."  European Romantic Review.  11.2 (Spring 2000):  168-185. 

"Reading Ward's 'Blind Man's Blues.'" Arc.  44 (Summer 2000):  50-52. 

"Liberalism and Its Discontents: Reading Black and White in Contemporary Québécois Texts."  (Reprint of article first published in the Journal of Canadian Studies, 31.3  [Autumn 1996]:  59-77.)  In Literary Pluralities, ed. Christl Verdun.  Toronto: Broadview Press, 1998.  193-210. 

"Cool Politics: Styles of Honour in Malcolm X and Miles Davis."  Jouvert: A Journal of Post-Colonial Studies.  1.2 (1998):  http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/jouvert  

"Contesting a Model Blackness: A Meditation on African-Canadian African Americanism, or The Structures of African-Canadianité."  Essays on Canadian Writing.  63 (Spring 1998):  1-55. 

"Towards a Conservative Modernity:  Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Acadian and Africadian Poetry."  [Reprint of article first published in the Revue Frontenac / Frontenac Review, 9 (1992): 45-63.]  In Cultural Identities in Canadian Literature /Identités culturelles dans la littérature canadienne, ed. Bénédicte Mauguière.  New York: Peter Lang, 1998.  49-63. 

"Must We Burn Haliburton?"  In The Haliburton Bi-centenary Chaplet: Papers Presented at the 1996 Thomas Raddall Symposium.  Ed. Richard A. Davies.  Wolfville NS: Gaspereau Press, 1997.  1-40. 

"Africana Canadiana: A Primary Bibliography of Literature by African-Canadian Authors, 1785-1996, in English, French, and Translation."  Canadian Ethnic Studies.  28.3 (1996):  106-209. 

"Must All Blackness Be American?: Locating Canada in Borden's 'Tightrope Time', or Nationalizing Gilroy's The Black Atlantic."  Canadian Ethnic Studies.  28.3 (1996):  56-71. 

"Clarke vs. Clarke: Tory Elitism in Austin Clarke's Short Fiction."  West Coast Line: A Journal of Contemporary Writing and Criticism.  [Vancouver]  22 (31/1; Spring/Summer 1997):  110-128. 

"The Birth and Rebirth of Africadian Literature."  In Down East: Critical Essays on Contemporary Maritime Canadian Literature.  Eds. Wolfgang Hochbruck (Universität Stuttgart) and James Taylor (St. Francis Xavier University).  Stuttgart: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 1997.  55-80. 

"Liberalism and Its Discontents: Reading Black and White in Contemporary Québécois Texts."  Journal of Canadian Studies.  31.3  (Autumn 1996):  59-77. 

"The Road to North Hatley: Ralph Gustafson's Post-Colonial Paradox."  Journal of Eastern Townships.  9 (Fall/Autumn 1996):  21-42. 

"White Niggers, Black Slaves:  Slavery, Race and Class in T. C. Haliburton's The Clockmaker."  Nova Scotia Historical Review.  14. 1 (June 1994):  13-40. 

"Towards a Conservative Modernity:  Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Acadian and Africadian Poetry." Revue Frontenac / Frontenac Review.  9 (1992):  45-63. 

"Michael Ondaatje and the Production of Myth."  Studies in Canadian Literature. 16.1 (1991):  1-21. 

"The Career of Black English:  A Literary Sketch."  In The English Language in Nova Scotia.  Eds. Lilian Falk and Margaret Harry.  Lockeport NS: Roseway Publishing, 1999.  125-145. 

Non-Refereed: 

“Regarding Keith Garebian.”  Keith Garebian: Essays on His Work.  Guernica Editions.  [Forthcoming] 

“A Note—Imagining an Africa That Never Was:  The Anti-Racist / Anti-Imperialist Fantasy of Charles R. Saunders’ Imaro and Its Basis in the Africentric Occult.”  Canadian Literature.  240.  2020.  97-105. 

“Métis and/or Afro-Métis:  Who do you think you are?”  Canadian Diversity.  Special Issue:  Facing the Change.  Canada and the International Decade for People of African Descent.  16.4 (2019) [2020].  41-45. 

https://www.ciim.ca/en/fiche-228-Facing_the_Change_Canada_And_the_International_Decade_for_People_of_African_Descent_Part_2   

“Ten African-Canadian Plays to Watch (Catch) Thus Far This Century.”  In “Focus on English-Canadian Drama in the New Millennium.”  Eds. Albert Rau and Martin Kuester.  Anglistic.  30.1 (2019).  47-57. 

https://angl.winter-verlag.de/issue/ANGL/2019/1 

“The Voices of African Canada:  A Foreword.”  African American Review.  51.3 (Fall 2018):  1-6. 

“Toward Establishing an—or the—“Archive” of African Canadian Literature.”  Editing as Cultural Practice in Canada.  Reprint, revised.  Locating Home: The First African-Canadian Novel and Verse Collections.  Ed. George Elliott Clarke.  Toronto: Tightrope Books, 2017.  9-32.    Originally published in  Editing as Cultural Practice in Canada.  Eds. Dean Irvine and Smaro Kamboureli.   

Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2016.  41-56. 

“Frederick Ward: Writing As Jazz.”  Reprint.  2005 Anne Szumigalski Lecture.  Measures of Astonishment:  Poets on Poetry.  Ed. League of Canadian Poets.  Regina: University of Regina Press, 2016.  33-67. 

“Reading the ‘Africville Novel,’ or Displacing ‘Race.’” Cultural Challenges of Migration in Canada / Les défis de la migration au Canada.  Eds. Klaus-Dieter Ertler & Patrick Imbert.  Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013.  439-452. 

“Sighting the Giallo in Ho Che Anderson’s Graphic Texts.”  Transformations of the Canadian Cultural Mosaic.  Eds. Anna Pia De Luca and Deborah Saidero.  Udine, IT: Centro di Cultura Canadese, Università degli Studi di Udine, 2012.  63-81. 

“Reading ‘Canon’ Scott’s Canon.”  Leaving the Shade of the Middle Ground: The Poetry of F.R. Scott.  Ed. Laura Moss.  Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011.  61-68. 

“Let Us Compare Anthologies: Harmonizing the Founding African-Canadian and Italian-Canadian Literary Collections.”  Pier Giorgio Di Cicco: Essays on His Works.  Ed. Joseph Pivato.  Toronto: Guernica, 2011.  121-152. 

“Canada: The Invisible Empire?”  The Canadian Mosaic in the Age of Transnationalism.  Eds. Jutta Ernst and Brigitte Glaser.  Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag, 2010.  19-35. 

“Europa w literaturze afrokanadyjskiej.” [“The Idea of Europe in African-Canadian Literature.”] Pantstwo Narod Tozsamosc w Dyskursach Kulturowych Kanady.  Eds. Eugenia Sojka and Miroslawa Buchholtz.  Krakow, Poland: Universitas, 2010.  228-256. 

“Afro-Gynocentric Darwinism in the Drama of George Elroy Boyd.”  Theatre in Atlantic Canada: Critical Perspectives in Canadian Theatre in English.  Vol. 16.  Ed. Linda Burnett.  Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2010.  121-134. 

“Towards a Pedagogy of African-Canadian Literature.”  Shared Waters: Soundings in Postcolonial Literatures. [Cross/Cultures #118]  Ed. Stella Borg Barthet.  Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009.  363-391. 

“Is black just another hue of re-white-and-blue?  Or, reading Africana: The Americanization of Africa and its diapora.”  At Home in the World: Essays and Poems in Honour of Britta Olinder.  Eds. Chloé Avril and Ronald Paul.  Gothenburg, Sweden: University of Gothenberg, 2008.  37-50. 

“The Idea of Europe in African-Canadian Literature.”  Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien. Ed. Martin Kuenster.  26.2 (2006): 39-60.  Augsberg, Germany: Wisser-Verlag, 2006. 

“Let Us Compare Anthologies: Harmonizing the Founding African-Canadian and Italian-Canadian Literary Collections.”  Belonging in Canada: Immigration and the Politics of Race and Ethnicity.  Proceedings from the 19th Annual Reddin Symposium.  Ed. Mark Kasoff.  Bowling Green, OH: Canadian Studies Center, Bowling Green State University, 2006.  37-57. 

“Frederick Ward: Writing As Jazz.”  Prairie Fire.  26.4 (Winter, 2005-06): 4-31. 

“Writing the Pax Canadiana: Terror Abroad, Torture at Home.”  Building Liberty: Canada and World Peace, 1945-2005.  Eds. Conny Steenman-Marcusse and Aritha van Herk.  Groningen, NL: Barkhuis Publishing, 2005.  213-36. 

“Anne Szumigalski and Eli Mandel: Two Blakean Poets.”  The 2004 Caroline Heath Memorial Lecture.  Freelance.  [Saskatchewan Writers Guild newsletter]  34.4 (January/February 2005): 5-7, & 34.5 (March/April 2005): 6-9. 

“Correspondences and Divergences Between Italian-Canadian and African-Canadian Writers.”  Canadian Multiculturalism: Dreams, Realities, Expectations.  Eds.  Matthew Zachariah, Allan Sheppard, Leona Barratt.  Edmonton AB:  Canadian Multicultural Education Foundation, 2004.  99-108.  [Conference Proceedings.  “Canada: Model for a Multicultural State Conference, Edmonton, AB, September 27, 2003.”] 

“Afro-Gynocentric Darwinism in the Drama of George Elroy Boyd.”  Canadian Theatre Review.  118 (Spring 2004): 77-84. 

“Gospel as Protest:  The African-Nova Scotia Spiritual and the Lyrics of Delvina Bernard.”  Rebel Musics: Human Rights, Resistant Sounds, and the Politics of Music Making.  Eds. Daniel Fischlin and Ajay Heble.  Montreal: Black Rose Books, 2003.  108-19. 

“What Was Canada?”  Is Canada Postcolonial?: Unsettling Canadian Literature.  Ed. Laura Moss.  Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2003.  27-39. 

"Race and Racism in Canadian Literature."  Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada.  Ed. W.H. New.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002.  922-926. 

 “George Elliott Clarke to Derek Walcott: ‘I write in a cold place.’”  Open Letter.  11.3 (Fall 2001):  15-17. 

“The Aesthetics of Justice.”  Convocation Address at the University of New Brunswick, Saint John, New Brunswick, May 19, 2000.  The Gaspereau Review.  16 (Summer 2001):  9-14. 

“Philly Talks #18: A Conversation Among C.S. Giscombe, Barry McKinnon, Wayde Compton, Giovanni Singleton, and George Elliott Clarke.”  Ed. Louis Cabri.  www.english.upenn.edu/phillytalks.  February 2, 2001. 

“An Open Letter to Derek Walcott.”  The Strand.  [Toronto, ON]  43.9 (January 31, 2001):  6. 

“Opera in Canada: A Conversation.”  With Linda Hutcheon.  Interview by Christl Verduyn.  Journal of Canadian Studies.  35.3 (Fall 2000):  184-198. 

Treason of the Black Intellectuals?  Reprint of Working Paper of the Third Annual Seagram Lecture Presented on November 4, 1998 (Montreal: McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, 1999).  www.africanada.com.  Ed. Corey Skinner.  Oct. 2000. 

Remarks.  In  “U.S./Canadian Writers’ Perspectives On The Multiculturalism Debate: A Round-Table Discussion at Harvard University.”  Eds. Graham Huggan & Winfried Siemerling.  Canadian Literature.  164 (Spring 2000):  82-111. 

“African-Canadian Literature.”  The Companion to African Literatures.  Eds. Douglas Killam and Ruth Rowe.  Oxford and Bloomington, IN: James Currey and Indiana University Press, 2000.  15-18. 

"White Like Canada."  Transition: An International Review.  73 (7.1, 1998):  98-109. 

"A Primer of African-Canadian Literature."  Kola: A Black Literary Magazine.  9.1 (1997): 26-34.  Rpt. from Books in Canada.  25.2 (March 1996):  5-7. 

"A Primer of African-Canadian Literature."  Books in Canada.  25.2 (March 1996):  5-7. 

Poetry / Drama / Fiction / Creative Non-Fiction 

Books 

Where Beauty Survived:  A Memoir of Race, Family Secrets, and Africadia.  Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2023.  Non-Fiction. 

Canticles III (MMXXII).  Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2022.  Epic Poetry. 

White.   Kentville (NS): Gaspereau Press, 2021.  Poetry. 

J’Accuse…! (Poem Versus Silence).  Toronto: Exile Editions, 2021.  Second Printing:  2023.  Poetry. 

Where Beauty Survived:  An Africadian Memoir.  Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, 2021.  Non-Fiction. 

Canticles II (MMXX).  Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2020.  Epic Poetry. 

Portia White:  A Portrait in Words.  Halifax:  Nimbus, 2019.  Narrative Lyric Suite. 

Canticles II (MMXIX).  Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2019.  Epic Poetry. 

“Settling Africville.”  Scripting (In)migration: New Canadian Plays.  Ed. Yana Meerzon.  Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2019.  107-181.  Verse-Drama. 

These Are the Words.  [The Gospel of Tobit by GEC & Bread, Water, Love by John B. Lee.]  [Coburg, ON]: Hidden Brook Press, 2018.  [The Gospel of Tobit= pp. 1-71.]  Verse-Novel. 

http://www.hiddenbrookpress.com/author/george-and-john/?post_type=publication 

The Merchant of Venice (Retried).  Kentville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2017.  Verse-Drama. 

Canticles I (MMXVII).  Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2017.  Epic Poetry. 

The Motorcyclist.  Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2017.  Paperback edition.  Novel. 

Canticles I (MMXVI).  Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2016.  Second Printing:  2017.  Epic Poetry. 

Illicit Sonnets.  London: Eyewear Publishing, 2016.  2nd Edition.  Narrative Lyric Suite. 

Gold.  Kentville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2016.  Poetry. 

The Motorcyclist.  Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2016.  Novel. 

Extra Illicit Sonnets.  Toronto: Exile Editions, 2015.  Narrative Lyric Suite. 

Traverse.  Toronto: Exile Editions, 2014.  Poetry.  Second Printing:  2014.  Narrative Lyric Suite. 

Lasso the Wind: Aurélia’s Verses and Other Poems.  Illus. Susan Tooke.  Halifax, NS: Nimbus Books, 2013.  Children’s Poetry. 

Illicit Sonnets.  London: Eyewear Publishing, 2013.  Narrative Lyric Suite. 

Black.  Kentville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2012.  Second Revised Edition.  Poetry. 

George Elliott Clarke: Poesie e Drammi.  [Trans. & Ed.]  Giulio Marra.  Venezia, Italia: Studio LT2, 2012. 

Blue. Kentville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2011.    Third Edition.  Poetry.   

Red.  Kentville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2011.  Poetry. 

Whylah Falls.  Kentville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2010.  Third (Revised) Edition.  Verse-Novel. 

Execution Poems.  Kentville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2000, 2001.  Third (Revised) Edition: 2009.  Narrative Lyric Suite. 

I & I.  Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane Editions, 2009.  Verse-Novel. 

Blues and Bliss: The Poetry of George Elliott Clarke.  Ed. Jon Paul Fiorentino.  Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2008.  Study and selected poems. 

Trudeau: Long March / Shining Path.  Kentville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2007.  Second Printing:  2010.  Verse-Drama. 

Whylah Falls.  [Many Kinds of Love: Earthy, Heavenly, and Hellish.]  Trans. Tong Renshan.  Beijing:  Chinese International Broadcast Publishing Company, 2006.  Poetry in Chinese translation. 

Poeme Incendiare.  [Burning Poems.]  Trans. Flavia Cosma.  Oradea, Romania: Cogito Press, 2006.  Poetry—from Illuminated Verses (2005), Blue (2001), Execution Poems (2000), and Gold Indigoes (2000)—in Romanian translation by Flavia Cosma.  

George & Rue.  New York: Carroll & Graf, 2006.  Novel.  [Paperback.] 

George & Rue.  London: Vintage, 2006.  Novel. 

Black.  Vancouver: Raincoast—Polestar Books, 2006.  Poetry. 

George & Rue.  New York: Carroll & Graf, 2006.  Novel. 

Illuminated Verses.  Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press Inc.—Kellom Books, 2005.  Verse accompanying photographs by Ricardo Scipio. 

George & Rue.  London: Random House / Harvill—The Ecco Press, 2005.  Novel. 

George & Rue.  Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2005; Toronto: Harper Perennial, 2006.  Novel. 

Québécité: A Jazz Fantasia in Three Cantos.  Kentville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2003.  Verse-Drama. 

Whylah Falls.  Tenth Anniversary Edition.  Vancouver:  Polestar Press, 2000.  Verse-Novel.  Sound recording.  Read by Robert Adams.  [Burnaby]: Library Services Branch, Province of British Columbia, [2002].  [3 sound cassettes (2 h, 50 min)] 

Saltwater Spirituals and Deeper Blues.  1983.  Electronic Edition: 2002.  Eds. Ronald Tetreault and the class members of English 4010, Dalhousie University, Halifax NS.  Posted on 23 April 2002.  Poetry.  See:  https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/31239/saltspirit.html?sequence=8.   

Blue.  Vancouver: Raincoast—Polestar Books, 2001.  Second Printing:  2008.  Poetry. 

Execution Poems.  Wolfville NS: Gaspereau Press, 2000, 2001.  Sixth Printing: 2002.  Second Edition: 2003.  Third Edition:  2009.   Narrative Lyric Suite. 

Whylah Falls.  Tenth Anniversary Edition.  Vancouver:  Polestar Press, 2000.  Verse-Novel. 

Whylah Falls: The Play.  In Testifyin’: Contemporary African-Canadian Drama.  Volume 1.  Ed. Djanet Sears.  Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2000.  215-276.  Verse-Drama. 

Whylah Falls: The Play.  Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 1999.  Verse-Drama.   

Beatrice Chancy.  Victoria, BC: Polestar Book Publishers, 1999.  Second Printing: 1999.  Revised Edition:  2008.  Verse-Drama. 

Audio of opera version, composed by James Rolfe: 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/64n4g44y6ovdik9/AADYfIB9o0SJg1UcQxrUigXpa?dl=0 

Lush Dreams, Blue Exile: Fugitive Poems 1978-1993.  Lawrencetown Beach, NS:  Pottersfield Press, 1994.  Poetry. 

Whylah Falls.  Vancouver:  Polestar Press, 1990.  Poetry and prose.  Fourth Printing: 1998.  Verse-Novel. 

Saltwater Spirituals and Deeper Blues.  Porter's Lake, NS:  Pottersfield Press, 1983.  Poetry. 

Limited Editions & Chapbooks 

War Canticles.  Vallum Chapbook series No. 34.  Montreal: Vallum Society for Arts and  

Letters Education, 2022.  Poetry.  125 copies 

“Justice Should Be a Home: A Poetic Echo of The [Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children / ] Restorative Inquiry.”  Commissioned by The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children / Restorative Inquiry.”  Completed June 9, 2019.  50 pp.  To be an Appendix to the Final Report of The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children / Restorative Inquiry to the Government of Nova Scotia.  [Embargoed] 

Two Hogtown Poets: Psicogeografia.  Breve Seleccion Poetica de George Elliott Clarke, Giovanna Riccio y Stephen Brown.  Trans. Ana Paula Austin Ferreira.  Cuidad Mexico (MX): Libros del Marques, 2019.  50 copies. 

At Ortona:  An Oratorio.  One poem plus French translation [A Ortona:  Un Oratorio] by Robert Paquin and an Italian translation [A Ortona:  Oratorio] by Riccardo Duranti.  Roma:  Embassy of Canada to Italy, Villa Grandi, Roma, Italia, 2018.  200 copies. 

The Denouement of Poet Laureate George:  Writings of December 2017.  Ottawa:  Ottawa Antiquarian Bookfair, 28 October 2018.  120 copies. 

Elegies: Literary and Political, 2016-2017.  Ottawa: 37th Ottawa Antiquarian Bookfair, 22 October 2017.  150 copies. 

To the Muse.  [Includes 8 poems in Giulio Marra’s Italian translations: “Portenti,” “Dissertazione sul Mio Nome,” “Linguaggio,” “IV.ii,” “III.iv [Il Poeta e il Tempo],” “À Edgar Mittelhölzer,” “Autobiografia (II),” and “Testamento.”]  Presented in connection with “George Elliott Clarke:  una performance di poesia e musica, con [musicians] Gionni Di Clemente e Bruno Censori, presentazione di Marco Fazzini,” Bar Borsa / Panic Jazz Club, Basilica Palladiana, Vicenza, Italy, September 23, 2012.  50 copies.  

Da Una Stanza.  [Trans. Marco Fazzini.]  Vicenza, Italy: L’Officina arte contemporanea, September 23, 2012.  50 copies. 

Da Una Stanza.  [Trans. Marco Fazzini.]  Vicenza, Italy: L’Officina arte contemporanea in occasione della lettura al Teatro Comunale, 16 aprile 2012.  290 copies. 

Selected Canticles.  Maxville, ON: above/ground press, 2012.  100 copies. 

The Gospel of X.  Vallum Chapbook series No. 9.  Montreal: Vallum Society for Arts and Letters Education, 2010.  Poetry.  200 copies. 

Africadian History: An Exhibition Catalogue.  Wolfville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2001.  Poetry.  400 copies. 

Blue (II).  Included in anthology, Running with Scissors: New Poetry by 19 Young Writers.  Eds. Andy Brown & Meg Sircom.  Montréal: Cumulus Press, 2001.  Poetry. 

Execution Poems.  Wolfville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2000.  Poetry.  66 copies. 

Gold Indigoes.  Durham, NC: Carolina Wren Press, 2000.  Poetry.  500 copies. 

Provençal Songs [II].  Ottawa:  above / ground press, 1997.  Poetry.  150 copies. 

Provençal Songs.  Ottawa:  Magnum Book Store, 1993.  Poetry.  30 copies. 

Libretti 

“Beatrice Chancy:  A Libretto in Four Acts.”  When Words Sing:  Seven Canadian Libretti.  Ed. Julie Salverson.  Toronto:  Canada Playwrights Press, 2021.  25-62. 

"Trudeau: Long March / Shining Path."  Canadian Theatre Review.  128 (Fall 2006):  67-88. 

"Beatrice Chancy: The Opera: A Libretto in Four Acts."  Marigraph: Gauging the Tides of Drama from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island.  Ed. Bruce Barton.  Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2004.  272-88. 

“Québécité: A Jazz Libretto.”  Kola.  15.2 (Fall 2003): 6-49. 

“Québécité: A Jazz Libretto in Three Cantos (Third Draft).”  Testifyin’: Contemporary African-Canadian Drama, Vol. II.  Ed. Djanet Sears.  Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2003.  221-55. 

“Québécité: A Libretto in Three Cantos (First Draft).”  Canadian Theatre Review.  112 (Fall 2002): 27-45. 

"Beatrice Chancy: A Libretto in Four Acts."  Canadian Theatre Review.  96 (Fall 1998):  62-77.