The breathtaking debut short story collection—first published in 1989—from one of Canada's most original and influential writers. Newly available in a special reissue edition from Knopf Canada.
“This is political art at its searing best.”—The Women's Review of Books

Since her the appearance of her novel In Another Place, Not Here, which was a New York Times Notable Book in 1998, award-winning author Dionne Brand has become one of the most revered figures in Canadian fiction. Sans Souci is Brand’s bold fiction debut, collecting eleven stories that breathe life and language into the lives of women in the Caribbean and the Black diaspora, often dealing with the process—and aftermath—of transit and arrival. Brand’s fiction dissects sexual violence, racial prejudice, and war, while attending to the full spectrum of experiences of those who live in the shadow of a shared colonial past—experiences encompassing both joy and sorrow, release and constraint. Now available for the first time in more than a decade, Sans Souci and Other Stories is a foundational work from one of our most cherished literary artists and thinkers.

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