After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing, and Region

(Paperback)

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Description

Inspired by Obama's inauguration, After Canaan is the first non-fiction book by acclaimed Vancouver poet Wayde Compton, which repositions the North American discussion of race in the wake of the tumultuous 20th century. After Canaan centres on the concept of Canada as a promised land (or 'Canaan') encoded in African American myth and song since the days of slavery. These varied essays explore the language of racial misrecognition, including the poetics of hip hop turntablism and the impact of the Obama phenomenon.

Reviews

After Canaan offers an alternative epistemology for thinking about race ... [It] engages critically and materially with race in a way that hasn't been done before. --Quill and Quire (STARRED REVIEW)

Compton has assembled a varied and nuanced set of essays reflecting on the varied and nuanced state of being black. --The Tyee

After Canaan offers an alternative epistemology for thinking about race ... [It] engages critically and materially with race in a way that hasn't been done before. --Quill and Quire (STARRED REVIEW)

Compton has assembled a varied and nuanced set of essays reflecting on the varied and nuanced state of being black. --The Tyee

Author Bio

Wayde Compton is a Vancouver writer whose previous books are the poetry collections 49th Parallel Psalm and Performance Bond and the anthology Bluesprint. He and Jason de Couto perform turntable-based sound poetry as a duo called the Contact Zone Crew. He teaches English at Emily Carr University and Coquitlam College in Vancouver.