Some Voices in, though, from and out of Canada

A Brief Note by Jonathan Locke Hart

In memory of Milan V. Dimić

Canadian literature has changed. In one sense, the oral literature of
Canada began with the stories that Natives told before Canada as a
nation existed. But it was also the stories of the Vikings who reached
the New World, and then much later, those of the English and French
and the many others groups who landed here.
The Natives, Acadians, Maritimers and New Englanders know
well that the borders of nations are artificial. But borders come, and
must be some reason for them. When we ask about what defines a
Canadian writer, we see how borders become porous. Some Can-
adian writers who were born here left, some have passed through,
and some only had ancestors who lived in Canada. Wyndham Lewis,
Malcolm Lowry, Saul Bellow, Jack Kerouac, Elizabeth Bishop, Mark
Strand all fall into this field of vision. Others, like Robert Finch, P. K.
Page E. D. Blodgett, Dionne Brand, and Tom King, who are import-
ant figures in Canadian literature, were born elsewhere.
Although French and English are the official languages of Cana-
da, it has always been multilingual on the ground. The original lan-
guages are Native or indigenous languages. English and French are
newcomers after the Norse languages and along with Basque and
other languages, including the African and Asian languages that
early inhabitants brought. So Canada and Canadian culture and
literature become richer and more intricate with each new wave of
inhabitants who settle or pass through.
The original works collected here represent in a small way the
variety of voices Canada has to offer. We are fortunate to have E. D.
Blodgett lead off this selection of Canadian poetry and literature
with beautiful apostrophes. Next are the intricate “Calindromes” of
Călin Andrei Mihăilescu. Naomi McIlwraith’s powerful poems that
blend Cree and English bring a socially conscious voice to the table.
The delicate poems of Pushpa Raj Acharya that follow move between
Canada and Nepal. My own poems are followed by the accomplished
translations into French by Nicole Mallet of my sonnets. Two rich
and lovely poems by Monique Tschofen round off this collection. The
work will speak for itself and much more eloquently than I could
about it. These writers are accomplished, and I was fortunate to have
them join me in this selection. They have lived in various regions
of Canada, and were born here or come from the United States, Ro-
mania and Nepal. Canadian literature is free and changing: it is not
a matter of policing or control. It is a free state of mind that people
contribute to here and afar, then and now, in a future that will change
and, I hope, be creative, welcoming and magnanimous (excuse the
personification). What I have enclosed here is a celebration of diver-
sity with the hope for further celebrations. In the future I hope to
bring more French into the conversation. Circumstances did not
allow me to do so this time.