2010 Atlantic Canada Reads Book Four: George Elliot Clarke’s George & Rue, Defended by Matt Stranach |

A Salty Ink Introduction to George Elliot Clarke and George & Rue

“George & Rue is beautiful example of what poets can bring to the novel form.” – The Quill & Quire.

Nova Scotian George Elliot Clarke was named to the Order of Canada in 2008 … two years after being appointed to the order of Nova Scotia. He was awarded the Trudeau Fellowship Prize in 2005, and has been the E. J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto. Clarke is best known for his multi-award-winning poetry, such as his GG-winning collection, Execution Poems, or Whylah Falls: winner of the 1991 Archibald Lampman Award. He is also a playwright, and his verse play of Whylah Falls was staged in Venice, Italy. Clarke is also a screen writer, having won the 2000 Outstanding Writer in Film and Television Award, and written 1999’s One Heart Broken Into Song.

George and Rue, Clarke’s debut novel, came out with a bang in 2005. Named an Editor’s Choice by The Bookseller in the UK, it won the Dartmouth Fiction Award, was a finalist for the Dublin IMPAC Award, and was shortlisted for Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best First Novel Award (Canada & Caribbean Region).

The novel is based on the true story of brothers George and Rufus “Rue” Hamilton, who killed a taxi driver in New Brunswick in 1949. They were executed that same year … and they were cousins of George Elliot Clarke’s mother.

From HarperCollins’ website: “Repelled and intrigued by his ancestral cousins’ deeds, George Elliott Clarke uncovered a story of violence, poverty and shame—a story that led first to the Governor General’s Award–winning Execution Poems and culminated in this brilliant and darkly comic debut novel.”

“Any one sentence could be lifted from the novel and offered up as sublime poetry.” – The Calgary Herald

“An awful story — beautifully told.” – Maclean’s