Black writers in Canada need to be celebrated for their vital place within the national literary imaginary, a term used by George Elliott Clarke. Following in a rich history of trailblazers who faced barriers at every level of the literary world, the talented contemporary writers in this reading list have written books which would once have been sidelined or whitewashed away, however, that these titles exist as copies in our hands is not a symbol of an end to the invisible barriers of racism and discrimination. Despite the many achievements of black authors and scholars, black culture and writing continue to play a marginal role in Canadian literature. Rinaldo Walcott put it this way, CanLit fails to transform because it refuses to take seriously that Black literary expression and thus Black life is foundational to it. CanLit still appears surprised every single time by the appearance of Black literary expression and Black life. Because Black expression is reduced to surprise there has been no sustained and ongoing serious consideration of Black work in CanLit.
We as readers, writers, and lovers of words play a role in this literary dynamic, whether we choose to be aware of it or not. It is well past the time to approach the page from an anti-racist perspective.
BLACK LIVES MATTER in CANLIT
In the Upper Country
By Kai Thomas
Hold My Girl
By Charlene Carr
Boys and Girls Screaming
By Kern Carter
Junie
By Chelene Knight
Delicious Monsters
By Liselle Sambury
Wires That Sputter
By Britta Badour
Finding Edward
By Sheila Murray
Blood Scion
By Deborah Falaye
Dream of No One But Myself
By David Bradford
Disorientation
By Ian Williams
Unsettling The Great White North
Black Canadian History
Edited by Michele A. Johnson and Funké Aladejebi
Remedies For Chiron
By M. Patchwork Monoceros
Calpurnia
By Audrey Dwyer
Every Day She Rose
By Andrea Scott and Nick Green
The Negroes are Congregating
By Natasha Adiyana Morris
Black Women Under State
By Idil Abdillahi
Blood Like Fate
By Liselle Sambury
Fear of a Black Nation
By David Austin
The Day-Breakers
By Michael Fraser
I Am Because We Are
By Chidiogo Akunyili-Parr