An evocative and insightful essay collection, Bread Out of Stone brings Dionne Brand’s signature unflinching eye and personal history to issues of sex, sexism and sexual autonomy; politics, community and the centrality of whiteness in Canadian culture; diaspora and immigration; violence and stereotypes; racial imagination; and music, art, literature and freedom.

First published in 1998, this edition includes a new introduction from the critically acclaimed writer. These prescient essays, whose bearing still have a tight grip in contemporary culture, offer commentary and criticism in Brand’s uniquely poetic and unimpeachable way.

Dionne Brand is internationally known for her poetry, fiction, and essays. She has received many awards, notably the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, the Trillium Award (Land to Light On), 1997), the Pat Lowther Award (Thirsty, 2005), the City of Toronto Book Award (What We All Long For, 2006), and the Harbourfront Festival Award (2006), given in recognition of her substantial contribution to literature. She is a professor in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph.

Leslie C. Sanders is a professor at York University, where she teaches African American and Black Canadian literature. She is the author of The Development of Black Theatre in America, the editor of two volumes of Langston Hughes’s performance works, and a general editor of the Collected Works of Langston Hughes. She has written essays on African American and Black Canadian literature.

Dionne Brand's profile page

• Winner, Harbourfront Festival Prize

"Brand . . . is one of the freshest, fiercest boices in Canadian letters." —Edmonton Journal

"Dionne Brand has distinguished herself in Canada and abroad as poet, fiction writer and oral historian. In this collection she can be seen as a cultural critic of uncompromising courage, an artist in language and ideas, and intellectual conscience for her country." —Adrienne Rich