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In the past few years, we have witnessed a chorus of Black Canadian voices emerge to rethink Canada’s literary canon. Though the writers in this anthology range from poets, novelists, essayists and historians who are contributing to Canadian literature, they are all authors who are also redefining Canadian literature. Memoirs, speculative fiction and blistering critiques of culture help tell the stories of belonging, resistance and the Black diasporic experience.
Canisia Lubrin: Reimagining the Poetic Form
Canisia Lubrin was born in St. Lucia and now creates poetry in Canada. She has emerged as one of Canada’s leading poets. Lubrin’s book The Dyzgraphxst won the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2021. It was praised for its experimental structure and rigorous engagement with identity, race and power. Lubrin’s work is made so vital by its brute force, bending the form of language itself; creating poetry that confounds the container of poetry. Her voice generates a challenge to the literary establishment and to her readers to engage with the historical erasures of Canada’s colonial past.
Chelene Knight: Writing Home and History
Chelene Knight‘s writing is a dual action of memory and reclamation. Knight, a Vancouver writer of Dear Current Occupants and Junie, writes stories that celebrate personal and collective history. In her memoir Dear Current Occupant, Knight shares her experiences of growing up as a Black girl in East Vancouver, a place that rarely gets acknowledged in the Canadian canon. Chelene Knight continues to work not just as a writer, but as the founder of Breathing Space Creative, a literary consultancy that strives to include diverse communities in the publication of literature, where she advocates for structural change to the literary landscape in Canada.
Desmond Cole: Journalism as Resistance
Desmond Cole is recognized primarily as a journalist and activist, with his 2020 book The Skin We’re In presenting as a cultural manifesto. It chronicles 12 months of systemic racism in Canada and switches up the idea of Canadian exceptionalism—the notion that somehow, Canada does not feel the racial tensions of other countries. Cole’s voice is unrelenting, and its strength blends lived experience with careful reporting.
He reminds readers that Canadian literature must also function as a mirror of its most marginalized, as it reflects their struggles and triumphs. His message is that resistance, while made tangible in art and narrative, can also act as the turnstile to change.
Afua Cooper: Excavating Erased Histories
Afua Cooper, a historian and poet, is critical to the Black Canadian literary tradition. Cooper’s ground-breaking book The Hanging of Angélique unearths the untold story of an enslaved Black woman who was hanged in 18th century Montreal. Her work and poetry collections illuminate the histories that are missing from Canadian textbooks. Cooper’s work connects to the theme of loss, specifically the Black histories and voices that have been erased from the historical collective. Cooper’s writing pushes back against just this, assembling pieces of history to create a path of resilience and identity for future generations.
Why a New Canon Matters
The Canadian literary canon has long highlighted white, Eurocentric voices while often silencing writers of colour. The work of Lubrin, Knight, Cole and Cooper—alongside many other emerging voices—together challenge this exclusion. They ask readers to reimagine Canada’s identity, one not just of one story but the many that make up its communities.
These writers aren’t waiting to be inserted into the canon—they’re crafting their own canons. Their forms of speaking to anti-Black racism, diasporic belonging and cultural memory often overlap, as do their genres of writing and forms of storytelling.
A Growing Movement
This wave of literature is one major part of a larger movement of Black creators going from musicians to filmmakers, who are looking for representation and re-envisaging culture. As publishers and readers start to explore broader narratives, Black Canadian literature and literary texts are moving from the margins to the centre of the national conversation.
Literary festivals are also beginning to emerge, namely the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD). Groups such as the FOLD have a variety of content to offer, such as mentorships, workshops and community events. Together they all combine to create important platforms for voices that have been silenced for decades.
Final Word
The direction of Canadian literature is not to preserve old canons but to build new ones. New voices like Lubrin, Knight, Cole and Cooper are creating space for others to move through, redefining what it means to belong and to be heard. Our job, as readers, is to listen—not as passive viewers, but as active participants in a cultural shift. Canada’s literary canon is changing, and thanks to these Black Canadian writers, it will never look the same way again.
