Why We Write: Conversations with African Canadian Poets and Novelists

by H. Nigel Thomas (Editor)

Poetry. Fiction. Essays. In WHY WE WRITE: CONVERSATIONS WITH AFRICAN CANADIAN POETS AND NOVELISTS, fifteen leading African Canadian writers interview with editor H Nigel Thomas, discussing the complexities of the writing experience and revealing their thoughts on their creative process. Identifying how their social and geographical origins have influenced their work, the interviews provide valueable insights both on individual creativity and on the politics of cultural production in a multicultural society. Contributors include Austin Clarke, George Elliot Clarke, Afua Cooper, Bernadette Dyer, Claire Harris, Lawrence Hill, Nalo Hopkinson, Pamela Mordecai, and others.

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

H Nigel Thomas was born in St Vincent. He attended university in Montreal and for ten years was a teacher with the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal. He is now professor of literature at Laval University. His published works include the novel Spirits in the Dark, which was short-listed for the 1994 Quebec Writers’ Federation Hugh MacLennan Fiction Award; How Loud Can the Village Cock Crow, short fiction; and Moving through Darkness, poetry.