In an effort to stand in solidarity with the people all across North America opposing racism against black people, the Book Publishers Association of Alberta (BPAA) and the Writers’ Guild of Alberta (WGA) have assembled a reading list of relevant books, articles, and essays.

We are committed to working towards greater inclusivity within our industries through fair representation of Black, Indigenous, and other racialized people, and to amplifying and listening to voices that have too often been silenced.

Books

• Alberta’s Camelot: Culture and Arts in the Lougheed Years – Fil Fraser (Lone Pine Publishing)
• An Autobiography of the Autobiography of Reading – Dionne Brand (University of Alberta Press)
• A Quality of Light – Richard Wagamese (Anchor Canada)
• Blue Sunflower Startle – Yasmin Ladha (Freehand Books)
• Canadian Samurai – Russ Crawford (Agrinomics Publishing)
• Chorus of Mushrooms – Hiromi Goto (NeWest Press)
• Honouring High Places: The Mountain Life of Junko Tabei – Junko Tabei (Rocky Mountain Books)
• How the Blacks Created Canada – Fil Fraser (Dragon Hill Publishing)
• I Am Still Your Negro: An Homage to James Baldwin – Valerie Mason John (University of Alberta Press)
• Medicine River – Thomas King (Penguin Canada)
• Memoirs of a Muhindi – Mansoor Ladha (University of Regina Press)
• Mothertalk: Life Stories of Mary Kiyoshi Kiyooka – Roy Kiyooka (NeWest Press)
• Nouveau Griot – Tanya Evanson (Frontenac House)
• Obasan – Joy Kogawa (Penguin Books)
• Paper Teeth – Lauralyn Chow (NeWest Press)
• Pourin’ Down Rain: A Black Woman Claims Her Place in the Canadian West – Cheryl Foggo (Brush Education)
• Running Uphill: The Short, Fast Life of Harry Jerome – Fil Fraser (Dragon Hill Publishing)
• The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology (Wilfrid Laurier University Press)
• The Great Black North: Contemporary African Candian Poetry (Frontenac House)
• The Kappa Child – Hiromi Goto (Red Deer Press)
• The Response of Weeds – Bertrand Bickersteth (NeWest Press)
• The Second Life of Samuel Tyne – Esi Edugyan (Vintage Canada)
• This Wound is a World – Billy-Ray Belcourt (Frontenac House)
• Venous Hum – Suzette Mayr (Arsenal Pulp Press)

Essays, Poems and Articles

• 20 Black Poets You Should Know (and Love) – Hope Wabuke (Article)
• Black Lives Matter – Eileen Schuh (Essay)
• East Calgary Is Not A Culture – Hadeel Abdel-Nabi (Article)
• Normal Isn’t Working – Cheryl Foggo (Essay)
• Poem – Alison Clarke
• Racism – Mansoor Ladha (Essay)
• The cameras on your phones make Black people invisible – Ian Williams (Article)

Additional Materials and Reading Lists

• @blackowned.ab – Instagram page highlighting Black Owned businesses in Alberta
• Book Women Podcast – A podcast where three Métis aunties figure out how to publish, edit, and write Indigenous stories.
• Calgary Public Library – List of books by Black Canadian Authors.
• Dionne Brand – Writing Against Tyranny and Toward Liberation (Video)
• Edmonton Anti-Black Racism Toolkit – Bashir Mohamed
• Glass Bookshop – Featured selections include “Anti-Racism Books” and “Books by Black Writers”.
• Historians on the 2020 protests – This is an in-progress bibliography of work by historians and other social scientists that contextualizes and historicizes the multi-city protests and extralegal and state violence of late May and early June 2020.