4 Black Canadian writers to watch in 2025, according to book aficionados Ryan B. Patrick & Alicia Cox Thomson
Valérie Bah, Vincent Anioke, Anne Hawk and Chimwemwe Undi are making their mark
Alicia Cox Thomson is a Toronto-based writer and columnist for The Next Chapter. February is Black History Month and Thomson takes a look at why Black Canadian writers should be read, respected and celebrated all year.
In honour of Black History Month, CBC Books senior producer Ryan B. Patrick and The Next Chapter columnist Alicia Cox Thomson spoke with the show's host Antonio Michael Downing about four Black Canadian authors to watch in 2025.
Alicia Cox Thomson on why Black Canadian writers matter, all year around
Black writers have made a rich contribution to the Canadian literary canon for over a century whether they were born here, emigrated from elsewhere, or spent time in Canada that influenced their perspective. These authors, poets and playwrights often explore themes of Black identity in societies shaped by their colonialist history, including stories set in Africa, the Caribbean and, of course, right here at home.
Their exploration of race, ethnicity, culture, gender and sexuality reminds the world that Blackness is not a monolith, that each one of us is a tapestry woven from our experience. This work is an examination of harm and trauma, an act of decolonization, and ultimately, a celebration of hope and healing.
The Black diaspora stretches wide and our influence is vast. The four writers featured today are proof of that.
Valérie Bah
The critically acclaimed genre-bending novel Subterrane, Montreal-based queer writer Valérie Bah's first major work in English, was released last fall by Vehicule Press. They spoke with CBC about the diversity of the publishing landscape for Black artists. "I think that Blackness is so big and beautiful and diverse… There's a very strong tradition of Black experimental work [in Canada]," they said, citing authors Francesca Ekwuyasi and Dionne Brand as inspirations.
"I think that's a place where artists can, just like, let a lot of things and experience a lot of complexity in our stories. And for me, humour is one of my biggest coping mechanisms. It's a really great vehicle for getting to the more dense, difficult matter."
Subterrane is darkly funny about difficult topics. It's a genre mash-up of speculative fiction, comedy, drama, dystopian fiction and mystery told from the point of view of unique Black characters. Regarding its inspiration, Bah said, "I had just finished film school, a more mainstream one.
And I tend to obsess over certain things [like] the question of making art. Who gets to make it? What gets called art, who holds the role that says so, you know, societally? Then thinking about the people around me, you know? It turned into Subterrane, like, quite organically."
The novel is set in dystopian New Stockholm, a "settler colonial metropolis like any other" home to capitalists and their shining towers, and Cipher Falls, the last affordable neighbourhood in the city, where the creatives and activists work, dream and survive.
A construction project threatens Cipher Falls' inevitable gentrification, leading some residents to attempt to sabotage the plans. Government-approved documentarian Zeynab wins a grant to tell the story of Cipher Falls' evolution — but what are her true motives?
Bah is working on the French translation, calling it "a bit of a rewrite, too," which will be released this May.
Vincent Anioke
Currently based in Waterloo, Ont., writer Vincent Anioke was born and raised in Nigeria and his short stories are largely set there. As a child, he attended national and international math competitions and moved to the U.S. to study at M.I.T., but always loved to write (he wrote a 2000-page science fiction opus between the ages of 11 to 15).
Today, Anioke works as a software engineer for Google Canada by day while writing short stories that have appeared in The Rumpus, The Masters Review and Passages North by night. His debut collection Perfect Little Angels, released last spring by Arsenal Pulp Press, was a finalist for the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers from the Writers' Trust of Canada.
Perfect Little Angels contains stories about masculinity, desire, identity, repression and hope. "It's stunning. It's set in Nigeria. It revolves around the premise, 'What happens if we don't live up to what society expects of us?'" says Patrick. The pursuit of love, whether familial, platonic or romantic, powers the overarching narrative as characters seek the missing pieces that will make them whole.
Brought down by grief, a man reunites with the ghost of his lover on a stormy night. An all-boys boarding school sets the scene for a violent struggle between staff and students. An addict is given new hope after a small compliment on his pottery from a stranger. Anioke writes, "Perfect Little Angels is about many things, including perspective. How a thing shifts under new light. Hard contours gaining softer edges."
Anne Hawk
The Pages of the Sea broke my heart with hardship and put it back together with hope. Anne Hawk, who was partly raised in Grenada, Vancouver and now lives in England, has written a debut novel that feels like the work of someone long used to crafting literary fiction.
It's a coming of age story set on an unnamed Caribbean island, where young Wheeler and her teenage sisters have moved in with their aunts and cousins after their mother moves to the UK to work. Wheeler's mother is part of the Windrush Generation, the migration of Black Caribbean people to the United Kingdom between 1948, when the first ship (the Windrush) landed in England with the first 1000 immigrants, and the early 1970s.
The Pages of the Sea follows Wheeler as she's left mainly to fend for herself and wonder when her mother will return. Her sisters, tasked with caring for her, are teenagers with little warmth or patience. The little girl is neglected and abused by her aunt and older cousin while finding friendship with a cousin her own age.
Written from Wheeler's point of view, Hawk uses colloquial dialect for internal monologue and in speech. Wheeler's longing for her mother is palpable and Hawk's talent with words may make readers weep. Stories about the Windrush generation tend to focus on adults embarking on new lives and making sacrifices to do so.
This is a beautifully written story about the children left behind.
Chimwemwe Undi
Chimwemwe Undi, like Anioke, has a demanding day job. The Winnipeg-based lawyer and poet is also the current Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate and was Poet Laureate of Winnipeg for 2023 and 2024.
Her latest poetry collection, Scientific Marvel, released by House of Anansi Press last year, dives deep into the history and current culture of Winnipeg as seen from the vantage point of someone outside the traditional sense of what a 'Winnipegger' looks like.
Although Undi was born there, she spent her early childhood in Zambia and Namibia, returning to the city when she was 13. She writes about the city as someone both born of Winnipeg and outside it.
"She writes about the city of Winnipeg, what she calls home, as well as everything in terms of gender, race, language, immigration within the prairies," says Patrick.
In an interview with IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed, Undi speaks about her poem Comprehensive Ranking System, a reference to the immigration point system that ranks an immigrant's appeal before possible entry into Canada.
"That's how my family came back to Canada… we were put through this ranking system, checked off these boxes and were deemed good enough immigrants to come into Canada and then were brought here," she said.
This coming and going informs her perspectives about colonialism, Black identity, immigration, sexuality and what it means to interact with her hometown as someone with other homes in her heart.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians, check out CBC's Being Black in Canada. You can read more stories here.
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