Press release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Toronto; November 13, 2020)

HarperCollinsCanada is thrilled to have acquired two works of non-fiction by celebrated Canadian literary critic, author and editor Donna Bailey Nurse: The Black Album (world rights, all languages) and an untitled memoir (world rights excluding UK, all languages). Both titles will be published under the imprint Patrick Crean Editions. Donna Bailey Nurse said of the acquisition, “I am overjoyed to have been signed by Patrick Crean of HarperCollins to write a history of Canada from the perspective of the Black Canadian family. The project is partly inspired by my early involvement with the Ontario Black History Society, where I interviewed dozens of older African Canadians about living, working and growing up Black in Canada. It will contribute to a growing body of literature committed to unearthing a truer, more complete chronicle of our beloved country, for Black people have played a significant role in the story of Canada from the very start. This history, part of a two-book deal, will be followed by a memoir of my Jamaican family. Both are dream projects for me. I am over the moon with excitement and gratitude.”

Bailey Nurse’s first book, The Black Album, is set to publish in Fall 2022. In it, Bailey Nurse will weave together the story of Black Canada, delving deeply into the tales of select families and individual Black Canadians, offering a profoundly original portrait of the Black Canadian family tree.

Bailey Nurse’s second book with Patrick Crean Editions is a poignant and fiercely engaged memoir about her Jamaican Canadian family.

Publisher and editor Patrick Crean said, “I have known Donna Bailey Nurse for many years and have been aware of the important work she has done as a critic and literary influence in Canadian letters. We are excited now to have signed Donna to a two-book deal for a memoir about her family and an important social history that focuses on the Black experience in Canada entitled The Black Album. We are thrilled to have Donna grace our list and look forward to working with her on these timely and most promising books.”

Donna Bailey Nurse is self-represented in Canada. The book deal was brokered by Donna Bailey Nurse and Patrick Crean.

Donna Bailey Nurse is a respected critic of Canadian literature and Black women’s writing from around the world. She has been a contributor for more than two decades to major publications, including The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, The Walrus and The Boston Globe. She is a columnist for Canada’s leading book program, The Next Chapter, on CBC Radio, as well as a former lecturer at George Brown College, a cultural commentator and an author and editor. She lives in Toronto with her family.