George Elliott Clarke
George Elliott Clarke is a Canadian poet and playwright currently serving as the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada. Born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Elliott Clarke grew up nearby the African-Canadian Loyalist community of Three Mile Plains. He completed his undergraduation in arts at the University of Waterloo, his masters of arts at Dalhousie University and his Ph.D. at Queen's University. Currently the inaugural E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto, Elliott Clarke teaches about Canadian and African diasporic literature. In 2002 he published, Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature and in 2012 he published a second volume, Directions Home: Approaches to African-Canadian Literature. Clarke’s literary works explores the lives of African immigrants; specific beliefs, longings and experience of oppression and resistance, the desire for safety, freedom, equality and other basic human rights. He continues to address and challenge the historic encounters that African descendants have with racism, segregated areas, discrimination, hatred, forced relocation and a loss of a sense of identity and a sense of belonging. Elliott Clarke’s many honors include the Portia White Prize for Artistic Achievement (1998), Governor-General's Award for Poetry (2001), the National Magazine Gold Medal for Poetry (2001), the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award (2004), the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellowship Prize (2005), the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction (2006), the Eric Hoffer Book Award for Poetry (2009), appointment to the Order of Nova Scotia (2006), appointment to the Order of Canada at the rank of Officer (2008), and eight honorary doctorates.
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