The Day-Breakers

By Michael Fraser

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 The Day-Breakers, 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 The Day-Breakers 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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1771964839
• ISBN13: 9781771964838
• Release Date: April 2022
• Publisher: Biblioasis
• Length: 72 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.4" x 8.4"