Gaspereau Press’ best-selling title, Execution Poems, is George Elliott Clarke’s complex lament for his late cousins, George and Rue two Black men who were hanged for the murder of a taxi driver. After the overwhelming interest generated by the original limited letterpress edition of Execution Poems, Gaspereau Press released this trade edition which went on to win Canada’s highest literary honour in 2001. The jurors of the Governor General’s Literary Award called this book “raging, gristly, public and unflinchingly beautiful,” and remarked on Clarke’s “explosive, original language.”
In 1949, George and Rufus Hamilton were hanged for the murder of a taxi driver in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Fifty years later, Clarke has written, in his abundant style, a series of poems that embody both damnation and redemption, offering convoluted triumphs alongside tragedy and blurring the line between perpetrator and victim. What Clarke presents in Execution Poems is uncomfortable. He reminds us of racism and poverty; of their brutal, tragic results. He reminds us of society’s vengefulness. He blurs the line between the perpetrator and the victim a line we’d prefer remain simple and clear. At the heart of it, Clarke is frustrating the notion that society deals any better with these issues today than it did in the 1940s.
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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).
“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
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Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Ninth Printing. pp.44 clean tight copy with slight edge and corner wear and a bit of soiling to covers Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Seller Inventory # 022408
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Very Good+. Later Printing. French flaps format; minor wear; otherwise a solid, clean copy with no marking or underlining; a very good reading copy. Book. Seller Inventory # 018517
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Later Printing. 44 pp. Trade paperback with French flaps; Governor General's Literary Award sticker on the front cover; still has the banner that came wrapped around the book. Light rubbing at the corners; no interior markings. In July, 1949, George and Rufus Hamilton were hanged for the murder of a Fredericton, New Brunswick taxi driver. These poems, written by their cousin, reimagine their story. Size: 8vo. Book. Seller Inventory # 226237
Book Description Condition: Good. 6th Printing. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 3823105-6
Book Description Trade Paperback. Condition: VG. used trade paperback edition. lightly shelfworn, corners perhaps slightly bumped. pages and binding are clean, straight and tight. there are no marks to the text or other serious flaws. obi strip inlcuded but has 1.5' tear. Seller Inventory # 1281734
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 1.01. Seller Inventory # G1894031482I3N00
Book Description Paperback. Condition: As New. No Jacket. Pages are clean and are not marred by notes or folds of any kind. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 1.01. Seller Inventory # G1894031482I2N00
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Very Good Condition. Trade Paperback with black paper covers. Minor wear. Binding tight, pages clean. Pictures available upon request. Seller Inventory # 038471
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. 44pp. Flat black card wrapper w French flaps, titled in gloss black lettering. Very light handling, small abrasion on back cover near bottom edge. Binding square and sound. Sixth printing of the trade edition. Originally released in a hand-printed limited edition of 60 copies, 2000. Reduced shipping may apply. Seller Inventory # 043364
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Fine. Sixth Printing. Fine, apparently unread copy, complete with the wraparound band on back cover. Inscribed by Clarke on the title page. Inscribed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 14542