Blues and Bliss: The Poetry of George Elliott Clarke (Laurier Poetry) - Softcover

George Elliott Clarke (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1554580609 ISBN 13: 9781554580606

Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2008

Synopsis

Blues singer, preacher, cultural critic, exile, Africadian, high modernist, spoken word artist, Canadian poetathese are but some of the voices of George Elliott Clarke. In a selection of Clarke's best work from his early poetry to his most recent, Blues and Bliss: The Poetry of George Elliott Clarke offers readers an impressive cross-section of those voices. Jon Paul Fiorentino's introduction focuses on this polyphony, his influencesaDerek Walcott, Amiri Baraka, and the canon of literary English from Shakespeare to Yeatsaand his "voice throwing," and shows how the intersections here produce a "troubling" of language. He sketches Clarke's primary interest in the negotiation of cultural space through adherence to and revision of tradition and on the finding of a vernacular that begins in exile, especially exile in relation to African-Canadian communities. In the afterword, Clarke, in an interesting re-spin of Fiorentino's introduction, writes with patented gusto about how his experiences have contributed to multiple sounds and forms in his work. Decrying any grandiose notions of theory, he presents himself as primarily a songwriter.

About this title

Review

``The quest for a wider audience for poetry may be quixotic, but this series makes a serious attempt to present attractive, affordable selections that speak to contemporary interests and topics that might engage a younger generation of readers. Yet it does not condescend, preferring to provide substantial and sophisticated poets to these new readers. At the very least, these slim volumes will make very useful introductory teaching texts in post-secondary classrooms because they whet the appetite without overwhelming.''--Paul Milton "Canadian Literature, 193, Summer 2007 "

``Blues and Bliss...[is] put out...through the wonderful Laurier Poetry Series. The series aims to make the work of Canadian poets more accessible through a format in which a critic introduces 35 poems from across the career of a major poet. In this helpful volume, Jon Paul Fiorentino calls Clarke's voice `polyphonic, ' that is, a unique blend of identities that includes blues singer, preacher, cultural critic, exile, Africadian, high modernist, spoken-word artist and Canadian poet.... The selection of poems which includes pieces from seven books, including the now Canadian-canonized Whylah Falls, is testament to the range of cadence and rhythm that makes up Clarke's multivocal range.''--Sonnet L'Abbé "Globe and Mail, Feb. 14, 2009 "

``What is included here is fabulous.''--Mary Shearman "Atlantis, 34.2, 2009 "

``In being removed from their original contexts, these poems shine anew. Viewed apart from the rest of the poems in Black, Letter to a Young Poet seems even stranger, a successful and disturbing piece of standalone verse that fusses the high modernism of Ezra Pound with frightening, dare I say, Stephen King-like imagery.... A welcome feature to the books in the Laurier Poetry Series are the autobiographical postscripts provided by the poets, a nice touch that will appeal to readers unfamiliar with the names behind the poetry.''--Christopher MacKinnon "Chronicle Herald (Halifax), April 5, 2009 "

About the Author

George Elliott Clarke is the inaugural E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto. An expert in African-Canadian literature, he published the foundational work in the field, Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature , in 2002. Named a Trudeau Foundation Fellow in 2005, Clarke is also a revered poet, librettist, and novelist. For his collection Execution Poems , he received the Governor Generalas Award for Poetry in 2001. His bestselling poetry-novel, Whylah Falls , is a major text in Canadian literature. Jon Paul Fiorentino is a writer and editor whose most recent book of poetry is The Theory of the Loser Class (2006). Recent editorial projects include the anthologies Career Suicide! Contemporary Literary Humour (2003) and Post-Prairie , a collaborative effort with Robert Kroetsch (2005). He lives in Montreal, where he teaches writing at Concordia University and is the managing editor of Matrix magazine.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1554580609
• ISBN 13: 9781554580606
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 90