Chronicles: Early Works - Paperback

by Dionne Brand (Author)

One of Canada's most distinguished poets, Dionne Brand explores and chronicles how history shapes human existence, in particular the lives of those ruptured and scattered by New World slaveries and modern crises. This republication of three early volumes presents a view of the trajectory of her poetic journey. Read retrospectively, the earlier work is haunting, a testament to a historical moment in which change seemed possible, even imminent, a belief nourished by the various social movements that galvanized a generation. Individually and as a whole, Brand's work charts a collective as well as a personal journey, delving into the burdens of history and the fugitive, contingent, dynamic, and mutable geographies of the African diaspora. She locates herself within matrices of language, place, gender, sexuality, and politics and maps what she calls the "murmurous genealogy" of her city, Toronto, and the denizen-citizenship of the contemporary global.

Author Biography

Dionne Brand is internationally known for her poetry, fiction, and essays. She has received many awards, notably the Governor General's Award for Poetry, the Trillium Award (Land to Light On, 1997), the Pat Lowther Award (thirsty, 2005), the City of Toronto Book Award (What We All Long For, 2006), and the Harbourfront Festival Award (2006), given in recognition of her substantial contribution to literature. Her most recent book, Ossuaries, won the 2011 Griffin Poetry Prize. She is a professor in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph.