Celebrating Black Canadian WritersLike this list

18 items

• Ordinary Notes

  Sharpe, Christina Elizabeth

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  “A deft blend of memoir, theory, archival documents and lyrical reflections. . . . [Ordinary Notes] build[s] into a mosaic that holds the relentless terror of Black life as well as its undeniable beauty. . . . By turning her gaze inward,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Races

  the Trials & Triumphs of Canada's Fastest Family

  Jerome, Valerie (Valerie E.)

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  “Races is a must read for every Canadian: searing, and emotional in parts, it gives us a deeper look at the Black experience in Canada. It is a striking tribute to the courage, spirit, and tenacity of the Jerome family. Despite their…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Hold My Girl

  a Novel

  Carr, Charlene

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  “Hold My Girl deftly explores the tribulations of motherhood through a compelling narrative that portrays both sides of a headline-making controversy about biology, motherhood, and race. Thoughtful, tense, and affecting, Charlene Carr has…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Junie

  Knight, Chelene

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  “Junie by Chelene Knight is a jewel of a novel. Set in the Hogan’s Alley neighbourhood in Vancouver, Junie celebrates the Black community and its history with beauty, precision, and an irresistible protagonist, a dreamer and artist…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Willie

  The Game-changing Story of the NHL's First Black Player

  O'Ree, Willie

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  “Willie O’Ree stood for something more than just being a black hockey player who broke the colour barrier. He represents that no matter what colour you are, what race, or what gender, you could do anything if you believe in yourself.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Shut Up, You're Pretty

  Stories

  Mutonji, Téa, 1995-,

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  "This book asks us to witness the journey of a girl into womanhood, holding in her arms the fragile understandings of femininity as a commodity, femininity as a caretaker, femininity as a storyteller. Dulled by the residue of trauma and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Sleeping Car Porter

  Mayr, Suzette

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  The Sleeping Car Porter brings to life an important part of Black history in North America, from the perspective of a queer man living in a culture that renders him invisible in two ways. Affecting, imaginative, and visceral enough that…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Blood Scion

  Falaye, Deborah

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  Following one girl’s journey of magic, injustice, power, and revenge, Deborah Falaye’s debut novel, inspired by Yoruba-Nigerian mythology, is a magnetic combination of Children of Blood and Bone and An Ember in the Ashes.

• Finding Edward

  a Novel

  Murray, Sheila

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  “In lucid, scintillating prose, suffused with mystery and everyday magic, Sheila Murray delivers one of the most penetrating dramas of Black experience in all of Canadian literature. This tale of a lonely Jamaican student enrolled at…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• In the Upper Country

  A Novel

  Thomas, Kai

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  The fates of two unforgettable women—one just beginning a journey of reckoning and self-discovery and the other completing her life's last vital act—intertwine in this sweeping, deeply researched debut set in the Black communities of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Invisible Boy

  a Memoir of Self-discovery

  Mooney, Harrison

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  This powerful memoir considers the controversial practice of transracial adoption from the perspective of families that are torn apart and children who are stripped of their culture, all in order to fill evangelical communities’ demand for…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Island of Forgetting

  Sealy, Jasmine

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  The Island of Forgetting is an intimate saga spanning four generations of one family who run a beachfront hotel in Barbados. Loosely inspired by Greek mythology, this is a novel about the echo of deep—and sometimes tragic—love and the ways…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Gutter Child

  a Novel

  Richardson, Jael Ealey, 1980-,

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  Gutter Child reveals one young woman’s journey through a fractured world of heartbreaking disadvantages and shocking injustices. As a modern heroine in an altered but all-too-recognizable reality, Elimina must find the strength within…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Ring

  Alexis, André, 1957-,

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  Following on the heels of Pastoral, Fifteen Dogs, The Hidden Keys, and Days by Moonlight, Ring completes Alexis’s Quincunx, a group of five genre-bending, philosophically sophisticated, and utterly delightful novels. Ring, provoked by a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Saga Boy

  My Life of Blackness and Becoming

  Downing, Antonio Michael, 1975-,

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  “Antonio Michael Downing’s Saga Boy is a vibrant, evocative, and searing account of the lives of Black immigrants. Downing helps us understand the rage and resilience of Black boys—motherless, fatherless, itinerant—and the communities that…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Disorientation

  Being Black in the World

  Williams, Ian, 1979-

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  “Disorientation is so honest, vulnerable, courageous and funny that it left me dying to sit down over a long coffee with Ian Williams. Make that two lattes, and I’m buying!”—Lawrence Hill, author of The Book of Negroes

• Dominoes at the Crossroads

  Stories

  Kellough, Kaie, 1975-,

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  In this collection of stories, Kaie Kellough’s characters navigate race, history, and coming-of-age by way of their confessions and dreams. Through the eyes of jazz musicians, hitchhikers, quiet suburbanites, student radicals, secret…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Even Though I Knew the End

  Polk, C. L.

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  A magical detective dives into the affairs of Chicago's divine monsters to secure a future with the love of her life. This sapphic period piece will dazzle anyone looking for mystery, intrigue, romance, magic, or all of the above.