George Elliott Clarke is a pioneering scholar of African Canadian literature and the E. J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto, having previously held posts at Duke University and McGill University. He is the author of 12 volumes of poetry, including Blue, Black, Red, and Execution Poems, which won the Governor General's Award for Poetry in 2001. He is currently the Poet Laureate of Toronto and the William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Chair in Canadian Studies at Harvard University. His many honors include the Portia White Prize for Artistic Achievement, the National Magazine Gold Medal for Poetry, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award, and an appointment to the Order of Canada at the rank of Officer, among others. He lives in Toronto.