The Day-Breakers Av Michael Fraser

<p><b>Longlisted for the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize </b><strong>• Longlisted for the 2023 Raymond Souster Poetry Prize</strong><b> • </b><b>A CBC Best Poetry Book of 2022 </b><span><b>• Nominated for the 2023 ReLit Award for Poetry</b></span></p><p><b>Saturated with locutions lifted from the late 19th century, <em>The Day-Breakers</em> deeply conceives of what African Canadian soldiers experienced before, during, and in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War.</b><em><br></em></p><p><em>"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</em> wrote Arna Bontemps. In <em>The Day-Breakers</em>, 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 v