The breathtaking debut short story collection—first published in 1989—from one of Canada’s most original and influential writers. Newly available in a special reissue edition from Knopf Canada.
“This is political art at its searing best.”—The Women’s Review of Books
Since her the appearance of her novel In Another Place, Not Here, which was a New York Times Notable Book in 1998, award-winning author Dionne Brand has become one of the most revered figures in Canadian fiction. Sans Souci is Brand’s bold fiction debut, collecting eleven stories that breathe life and language into the lives of women in the Caribbean and the Black diaspora, often dealing with the process—and aftermath—of transit and arrival. Brand’s fiction dissects sexual violence, racial prejudice, and war, while attending to the full spectrum of experiences of those who live in the shadow of a shared colonial past—experiences encompassing both joy and sorrow, release and constraint. Now available for the first time in more than a decade, Sans Souci and Other Stories is a foundational work from one of our most cherished literary artists and thinkers.
DIONNE BRAND’s literary credentials are legion. Her novel Theory was a Globe and Mail Best Book. Her poetry collection The Blue Clerk was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and won the Trillium Book Prize. Her collection Ossuaries won the Griffin Poetry Prize, and other collections have won the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Trillium Book Prize, and the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Among her other novels, In Another Place, Not Here was selected as a NYT Book Review Notable Book and a Best Book by the Globe and Mail; At the Full and Change of the Moon was selected as a Best Book by the LA Times; and What We All Long For won the Toronto Book Award. In 2006, Brand was awarded the Harbourfront Festival Prize for her contribution to the world of books and writing; from 2009 to 2012 she served as Toronto’s Poet Laureate, and in 2020 she won the internationally prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction. In 2017, she was named to the Order of Canada. And in 2022, she became Editorial Director of Alchemy, a line of books within Knopf Canada. She lives in Toronto.
Author Residence: Toronto, ON
Author Hometown: Guayaguayare, Trinidad and Tobago