Dalhousie alumnus George Elliott Clarke (MA’89, LLD’99), from Windsor, N.S., has been named Canada’s 7th parliamentary poet laureate.

Clarke says that he would like to raise the profile of the poet laureate position so that others can aspire to it.

During the two year term, he will be tasked with encouraging and promoting the importance of literature, culture, and language across Canada, as well as drawing attention to poetry and its role in the lives of Canadians.

Clarke is a seventh-generation Canadian of African-American and Mi’kmaq heritage. He has received the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry, the National Magazine Awards’s Gold Medal for Poetry, and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award.

Read more in “George Elliott Clarke named Canada’s new parliamentary poet laureate” on cbc.ca.