Wayde Compton

A beautiful YA graphic novel about the experience of migration: a young girl looking for a place to belong.

A Fable of Migration

The Blue Road

Wayde Compton's debut story collection is imbued with the color of speculative fiction; one strand of stories follows the emergence of a volcanic island, which alternatively becomes the site of a radical Native peoples' occupation, a real-estate development, and finally a detention center for illegal immigrants. Moving from 2001 through to 2025, The Outer Harbour is at once a history book and a cautionary tale of the future, condensing and confounding our preconceived ideas around race, migration, gentrification, and home. Wayde Compton is the author of three poetry collections. He is director of the Writer's Studio at Simon Fraser University.

The Outer Harbour

Inspired by Obama's inauguration, After Canaan is the first non-fiction book by acclaimed Vancouver poet Wayde Compton, which repositions the North American discussion of race in the wake of the tumultuous 20th century. After Canaan centres on the concept of Canada as a promised land (or 'Canaan') encoded in African American myth and song since the days of slavery. These varied essays explore the language of racial misrecognition, including the poetics of hip hop turntablism and the impact of the Obama phenomenon.

Essays on Race, Writing, and Region

After Canaan

A new collection of hip-hop-inspired poetry that fuses history and contemporary black politics; includes a CD of a turntable performance.

Performance Bond

Wayde Compton's first poetry book: a stunning set of poems documenting the migration of Blacks to Canada, specifically when the first Black settlers-facing an increasingly hostile racist government-left San Francisco and travelled north to British Columbia beginning in 1858. With recurring themes of the unknowable, the crossroads, the trickster, and entropy, 49th Parallel Psalm jumbles history, time, and the Canadian black literary canon. Shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize

Wayde Compton

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