Longlisted for the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize
• Longlisted for the 2023 Raymond Souster Poetry Prize
•
A CBC Best Poetry Book of 2022
• Nominated for the 2023 ReLit Award for Poetry
Saturated with locutions lifted from the late 19th century,
The Day-Breakers
deeply conceives of what African Canadian soldiers experienced before, during, and in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War.
"It is not wise to waste the life / Against a stubborn will. / Yet would we die as some have done. / Beating a way for the rising sun
wrote Arna Bontemps. In
, poet Michael Fraser imagines the selflessness of Black soldiers who fought for the Union during the American Civil War, of whom hundreds were African-Canadian, fighting for the freedom of their brethren and the dawning of a new day. Brilliantly capturing the rhythms of their voices and the era in which they lived and fought, Fraser’s
is an homage to their sacrifice and an unforgettable act of reclamation: the restoration of a language, and a powerful new perspective on Black history and experience.