Resisting the Anomie

Resisting the Anomie is the second book of poetry by Kwame Dawes, whose collection Progeny of Air, won Britain’s prestigious Forward Trust Poetry Prize for Best First Book in the fall of 1994.

In Resisting the Anomie, Dawes takes as his subject the anxiety of being far from home, the unease of not belonging, the sense of disconnection from culture and custom. Poems of Jamaica, of Canada, of Haiti; tightly controlled poems, wild and free poems, reggae poems; poems of rejoicing, of faith, love, anger and humour — Resisting the Anomie is a large collection of substantial works by a new and significant writer.

AUTHOR

Kwame Dawes

Kwame Dawes is truly a poet with an international voice and a burgeoning international reputation. Dawes was born in Ghana of Jamaican parents and grew up in Jamaica. He spent time as a child in England, and later studied and taught at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. He is the founder and lead singer of Ujaama, a reggae band that reunited in 2000 to open the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival in Fredericton. Now a professor of postcolonial literature at the University of South Carolina, Dawes is a frequent presence on the Canadian cultural scene as a consultant on race relations and the arts, and as a commentator on CBC Radio. Dawes’s first collection of poetry, Progeny of Air, won England’s Forward Poetry Prize in 1994. Since then, he has published five collections, including the widely praised Resisting the Anomie. Kwame Dawes is also the editor of Talk Yuh Talk, a collection of interviews with Caribbean poets, and Wheel and Come Again, the landmark anthology of reggae poetry.

Reviews

The process of discovering home is ongoing. The past is raked as carefully as a sand garden, for memories not tended faithfully will slip away. Each moment is sifted, held and relived.

In Resisting the Anomie, Kwame Dawes celebrates his roots and holds them fast. A Ghanaian-born Jamaican, educated in Canada and living in the US, Dawes writes tightly controlled poems, wild and free poems, boisterous reggae songs; poems of faith, love, anger and humour. All offer glimpses into the poet’s true home.