 [ Large Image ] | Execution Poems George Elliott Clarke 2001 / Poetry / $12.95 9781894031486 / Trade paper / 48 pp Edition is out of print 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. 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 Has a newer edition: 9781554470815 Replaces a previous edition: 9781894031349 | Other Books by this Author |  | White George Elliott Clarke 2021 / Canadian Poetry / $29.95 CAN 9781554472307 / Trade paper / 256 pp |  | The Merchant of Venice (Retried) George Elliott Clarke 2017 / Poetry / $19.95 CAN 9781554471713 / Trade paper / 64 pp |  | Gold George Elliott Clarke 2016 / Poetry / $21.95 CAN 9781554471577 / Trade paper / 160 pp |  | Black George Elliott Clarke 2012 / Poetry / $21.95 CAN 9781554471034 / Trade paper / 152 pp |  | Blue George Elliott Clarke 2011 / Poetry / $21.95 CAN 9781554470990 / Trade paper / 176 pp |  | Red George Elliott Clarke 2011 / Poetry / $19.95 CAN 9781554470983 / Trade paper / 160 pp |  | Whylah Falls George Elliott Clarke 2010 / Poetry / $21.95 CAN 9781554470952 / Trade paper / 208 pp |  | Execution Poems George Elliott Clarke 2009 / Poetry / $14.95 CAN 9781554470815 / Trade paper / 48 pp |  | Trudeau: Long March, Shining Path George Elliott Clarke 2007 / Poetry / $21.95 CAN 9781554470372 / Trade paper / 128 pp | Québécité George Elliott Clarke 2003 / Poetry / $39.95 CAN 9781894031752 / Fine / 112 pp |  | Québécité George Elliott Clarke 2003 / Poetry / $18.95 CAN 9781894031745 / Trade paper / 112 pp |  | Africadian History: An Exhibition Catalogue George Elliott Clarke 2001 / Poetry / $4.95 CAN 9781894031523 / Pamphlet / 16 pp |
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