Black Writers Matter
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"Black Writers? African, Bluesy, Classical, Disrespectful, Erudite, Fiery, Groovy, Haunting, Inspiring, Jazzy, Knowing, Liberating, Militant, Nervy, Optimistic, Pugnacious, Quixotic, Rambunctious, Seductive, Truculent, Urgent, Vivacious, Wicked, X-ray sharp, Yearning, Zesty. And so, they matter!" —George Elliott Clarke
An anthology of African-Canadian writing, Black Writers Matter offers a cross-section of established writers and newcomers to the literary world who tackle contemporary and pressing issues with beautiful, sometimes raw, prose. As editor Whitney French says in her introduction, Black Writers Matter “injects new meaning into the word diversity [and] harbours a sacredness and an everydayness that offers Black people dignity.” An “invitation to read, share, and tell stories of Black narratives that are close to the bone,” this collection feels particular to the Black Canadian experience.
"Reading these stories gave me both joy and grief." —Afua Cooper
"Collected in these pages are voices that need to be urgently heard, engaged and reckoned with. Black life, Black Canadian life, Black Canadian diasporic life in full colour and full of desire is on offer in Black Writers Matter." —Rinaldo Walcott, professor at University of Toronto and author of Queer Returns: Essays on Multiculturalism, Diaspora and Black Studies
"Black Writers Matter is an extraordinary achievement, a bold and loving gathering of Black writing in its sublimity; its stylistic and thematic complexity; its regional, cultural, generational, and experiential differences; its fiercely constellated energy. Whitney French and the talented contributors to this book offer us vital new writings within a two-hundred-year legacy of yearning and truth-telling. Please read this book." —David Chariandy, author of Soucouyant and Brother
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The Black writers in this stirring Canadian anthology will surprise and enlighten you at every turn. Writer and educator Whitney French was inspired to compile a book that would reflect the huge range of Black experiences in Canada, gathering the stories of artists, teachers, cab drivers, and more. These insightful tales show off how different our worlds are, from Makeda Silvera’s experiences as co-founder of Canada’s first publishing company run by women of colour to Cason Sharpe’s heartbreaking confessional about feeling so disposable at work that he contemplated walking out just to see if anyone noticed. We were moved by the way so many of these writers deal head-on with job discrimination, sexual violence, eating disorders, and disability. And yet simultaneously, many of these pieces celebrate feelings of joy and transcendence unique to the Black experience, leaving us with a gloriously diverse impression of Canada’s Black voices.
