Canada’s parliamentary poet laureate George Elliott Clarke will be speaking at UBC’s Okanagan campus Thursday.

A Canadian poet and playwright, Clarke’s work largely explores and chronicles the experience and history of the Black Canadian communities of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, creating a cultural geography that Clarke refers to as "Africadia." Clarke was invited to be one of 2017’s Visiting Authors by UBC’s Ashok Mathur, department head of Creative Studies and professor of Creative Writing.

"George Elliot Clarke is one of the most phenomenal poets working in Canada today,” says Mathur. “We are truly lucky to have our national poet laureate visiting us and reading for us. It's an experience not to be missed."

Clarke was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia in 1960, a seventh-generation Canadian of African-American and Mi’kmaq Amerindian heritage. He received a BA honours in English from the University of Waterloo, a MA in English from Dalhousie, and his PhD in English from Queen’s University. Clarke is currently a professor of English at the University of Toronto.

As an award-winning Canadian author, Clarke has published in a variety of genres including fiction, prose, poetry and drama. He has received recognition for his work with a number of awards including the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry, the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellowship Prize, appointment to the Order of Canada at the rank of Officer, and five honorary doctorates.

For a full list of George Elliot Clarke’s bibliography, awards and honours
visit http://canadian-writers.athabascau.ca/english/writers/geclarke/geclarke.php

The FCCS Visiting Author series is sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts.

What: Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Visiting Author Series
Who: George Elliot Clarke, Canadian parliamentary poet laureate
When: Thursday, March 16 at 3:30 p.m.
Where: EME 2181, Education, Management, Engineering building, UBC’s Okanagan Campus