Most Popular Books by George Elliott Clarke

The poems in Gold glitter. From the lush, unrestrained and unabashed tumble and thrust of his sensual lyrics (vivid expressions of love and lust which brook no admonishment) to the measured and stately resonance of his eulogies for community organizers, tributes to leaders and laureates, and contemplations on the principles for good governance, George Elliott Clarke strives to enact Robinson Jeffers''s assertion that "Beauty. . . Is the sole business of poetry." Whether it be in the whiskey-hue of skin or the metal of the love in one''s heart, the poems in Gold riff on the colour''s cultural and poetic properties, joining Blue, Black, and Red as the fourth volume in Clarke''s series of ''colouring'' books.

Number one in the series is Clarke''s Gold Indigoes. This lyric collection by the acclaimed Nova Scotian poet, playwright, and librettist traces the contours of relationship in lush yet startling francophilic tones.

The long-overdue biography of one of Canada''s most iconic Black politicians and activists, written with the country''s former Parliamentary Poet Laureate. "Dr. Howard McCurdy is the author of this autobiography. Period," writes George Elliott Clarke in the introduction to Black Activist, Black Scientist, Black Icon. "But in July 2017, seven months before his decease, he requested that I edit this work, which was already progressing toward a conclusion." McCurdy passed away in February 2018, and with the encouragement of McCurdy''s widow, Clarke took on the challenge of editing and completing the memoir. Fortunately, says Clarke, "The man can write, good people!... Howard delighted in the extemporaneous peroration, which, issuing in electrifying combustion out of heart and head, had audiences...presenting standing ovations so often that their chair seats never had a chance to warm." McCurdy indeed lived an extraordinary life. He was Canada''s first Black tenured professor; a founder of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association; a founder of the National Black Coalition of Canada; the person who named the New Democratic Party; the second Black elected to Parliament. With twenty-five photos from McCurdy''s personal archive, Black Activist, Black Scientist, Black Icon illuminates and celebrates the life of one of Canada''s most worthy figures. Says Clarke: "Dr. Howard McCurdy was exemplary in self-sacrifice; he was stellar in avant-garde thought and vision; he was...the most unforgettably proud Black man that I ever had the pleasure to know."

Extra Illicit Sonnets chronicles a love affair between a man and a woman of different complexions, cultures, continents, and generations, Sonia Fuentes of Andorra and Luca Xifona of Canada. She is Spanish in heritage; and he is Maltese. She is a Boomer and he is of Generation Y-Not. The poetry consists mainly of unrhymed - or blank - sonnets. It is transcendent and dangerous verse because it addresses humanity''s most complex and volatile passion.

"The poems in George Elliott Clarke''s White riff on that colour''s cultural and poetic properties, joining Blue, Black, Red and Gold as the fifth volume in his long-running series of ''colouring'' books. This substantial collection moves easily from topical poems written when Clarke was Canada''s Parliamentary Poet Laureate through to the lush love poems, tributes and cinematic reflections on identity, history and place. While often pivoting on larger cultural subjects and stories--the deadly explosion at lake Lac-Mégantic, the global pandemic, or the insidious persistence of systemic injustice--at their core Clarke''s poems are unfailingly intimate, animated by great empathy and a passion for connection. This collection exclaims, over and over again: ''Lookit!''" -- Provided by publisher.

In the -Boogie Nights- era of the 1970s, Betty Browning and her lover, boxer Malcolm Miles, travel from the fog-anchored grime of Halifax, Nova Scotia, to sunburnt Corpus Christi, Texas, and back -meeting tragedy and bloodshed along the way. I & I smoulders with love, lust, violence, and the excruciating repercussions of racism, sexism, and disgust. Rastafarian for -you and me, - -I & I- expresses the oneness of God and man, the oneness of two people or the distinction between body and spirit. In George Elliott Clarke''s hands, this existential aesthetic crystallizes in a love story of Gothic grit. The narrative gives this verse novel shape; the poetry makes it sing, straddling folk ballad, soul, and pop music, all the while moaning the blues.

"Canticles is a lyric-styled epic. Testament II--these Canticles II (MMXIX) and next Canticles II (MMXX)--issues re-readings--revisions, rewrites--of scriptures crucial to the emergent (Anglophone) African Diaspora in the Americas. Canticles II (MMXIX) follows Testament I (also issued in two parts--Canticles I [MMXVI] and Canticles I [MMXVII]) whose subject is History, principally, of slavery and imperialism and liberation and independence. Canticles II is properly irreverent where necessary, but never blasphemous. It is scripture become what it always is, really, anyway: Poetry."--