Execution Poems: The Black Acadian Tragedy of "George & Rue" - Softcover

Clarke, George Elliott

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1554470811 ISBN 13: 9781554470815

Publisher: Gaspereau Pr, 2009

Synopsis

After nine years and nine trade printings, Gaspereau Press is issuing a revised and redesigned second edition of its most popular title. Originally released in 2000 in a limited edition of 66 books handset and printed letterpress in a folio format, Execution Poems has gone on to sell over 6000 copies. It was the winner of the 2001 Governor General’s award for poetry and took first place in the poetry category of the 2001 Alcuin Awards for Excellence in Canadian Book Design.

Execution Poems is a suite of poems about Clarke’s cousins, George and Rufus Hamilton, who were hanged in July 1949 for the murder of a Fredericton, New Brunswick, taxi driver. In this startling work, Clarke reminds us of racism and poverty and of their brutal, tragic results, blurring the line between the perpetrator and the victim a line we’d prefer to be simple and clear. As all true poetry should, Clarke’s embodies both damnation and redemption, offering convoluted triumphs alongside tragedy.

About this title

About the Author:

George Elliott Clarke is an internationally-renowned poet and scholar whose books including his highly-esteemed poetry collections Execution Poems and Whylah Falls have won him many honours, including the Portia White Prize (1998), the Governor General’s Literary Award (2001), the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award (2004), and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellowship Prize (2005). Born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Clarke presently resides in Toronto where he is E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto. George served as and Canada’s seventh Parliamentary Poet Laureate (2016 17).

Review:

“It is an engrossing and dare I say it brilliantly executed narrative that gave me the sort of pleasure that Michael Ondaatje’s The Collected Works of Billy the Kid did years ago.” Noah Richler, National Post

About this edition

• Publisher: Gaspereau Pr
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1554470811
• ISBN 13: 9781554470815
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 44