Clarke, George Elliott, 1960-

George Elliott Clarke was born on February 12, 1960, in Windsor, Nova Scotia, near the Black Loyalist and Afro-Métis community of Three Mile Plains, and grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

He is a Canadian poet, playwright, literary critic, anthologist, and professor. He graduated from the University of Waterloo (B.A., 1984), Dalhousie University (M.A., 1989), and Queen's University (Ph.D., 1993). Clarke taught English and Canadian Studies at Duke University, North Carolina (1994-1999) and McGill University, Montreal (1998–1999). In 1999, he became a professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he teaches Canadian and African diasporic literature. Clarke has also served as a Noted Scholar at the University of British Columbia (2002) and the William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies at Harvard University (2013–1914). He was also a researcher for the Ontario Provincial Parliament (1982–1983), editor of the Imprint (the University of Waterloo, 1984–1985) and The Rap (Halifax, 1985–1987), a social worker for the Black United Front of Nova Scotia (1985–1986), parliamentary aide to Howard McCurdy (1987–1991), and newspaper columnist for the Halifax Daily News (1988–1989). He is the author of several poetry collections, e.g., "Saltwater Spirituals and Deeper Blues" (1983), "Lush Dreams, Blue Exile: Fugitive Poems 1978-1993" (1994), “Illuminated Verses” (2005), and “Black” (2006). His powerful opera “Beatrice Chancy” about slavery in Nova Scotia in the early 19th Century, with music by James Rolfe, has had many stage productions and a broadcast on CBC television since 1999. Clarke won the 2002 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry for his collection, "Execution Poems: The Black Acadian Tragedy of George and Rue" (2001). His many honours include several honorary doctorates, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Achievement Award (2004), the $150,000 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellowship Prize (2006), and appointment to the Order of Nova Scotia (2006). In 2018, the George Elliott Clarke Scholarship Fund was established at Duke University.