A startlingly original work about the act of writing itself from Griffin Poetry Prize--winner Dionne Brand. An essential observer of our time and one of the most accomplished poets writing today, Dionne Brand returns with a work that engages intimately with the act and difficulty of writing, the relationship between the author and the world, and the relationship between the author and other artists. It is a work with many preoccupations (memory, language, culture, time), beautiful and jarring juxtapositions ("The Wire is the latest version of Huckleberry Finn"), and endlessly haunting language ("On a road like this you don't know where you are. Whether you have arrived or whether you are still on your way. Whether you are still at the beginning or at the end. You are in the middle all the time. What would be the sign?"). Profound, moving, and wise in equal parts, The Blue Clerk is a work of staggering intellect and imagination, and a truly sublime piece of writing from one of Canada's most renowned, honoured, and bestselling poets.