Books by Kwame Dawes

unHistory is an essential record of our times by two world-leading poets, it is much more than that. It is an exploration of history's undertones, its personal, familial and institutional resonances and of the relationship between public events and the literary imagination.

This hauntingly beautiful collection of poems is a disarming account of a man consumed by thoughts of home and loss.

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.

This is the seventh collection of poetry by Kwame Dawes. It draws deeply on the poet's travels and experiences in Africa, the Caribbean, England, and the American South, and is a compelling meditation on what is given and taken away in the acts of generation and influence.

A bleak portrayal of life on the Dungle--the rubbish heap where the very poorest squat--this beautifully poetic, existentialist novel turns an unwavering eye to life in the Jamaican ghetto. By interweaving the stories of Dinah, a prostitute who can never quite escape the circumstances of her life, and Brother Solomon, a respected Rastafarian leader who allows his followers to think that a ship is on its way to take them home to Ethiopia, this brutally poetic story creates intense and tragic characters who struggle to come to grips with the absurdity of life. As these downtrodden protagonists shed their illusions and expectations, they realize that there is no escape from meaninglessness, and eventually gain a special kind of dignity and stoic awareness about life and the universe.