In an effort to work with, and learn from, Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BIPOC) scholars, authors, and readers, the L.M. Montgomery Institute has created an Anti-Racist Working Group. One of our first initiatives is to compile a list of readings that discuss Montgomery and issues of colonialism, systemic racism, and intolerance. While not all of the authors on this list are from a racialized group, our hope is that this list will encourage dialogue and create change. This working list also invites counternarratives, work that was published during Montgomery’s lifetime, as well as contemporary works that speak to the Black, Indigenous, and other minority experiences in Canada—particularly in Atlantic Canada. As this is meant as a working/living list, we are looking for suggestions on resources and readings that could make this list more robust. Please email the Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies (montgomeryjournal@upei.ca) with the following subject line: BIPOC Resource Reading List Suggestion.
Scholarly Essays
Collins-Gearing, Brooke. “Narrating the ‘Classic’ on Stolen Ground: Anne of Green Gables.” Anne Around the World: L.M. Montgomery and Her Classic, edited by Jane Ledwell and Jean Mitchell, McGill-Queen’s UP, 2013, pp. 164–78.
Cooper, Afua. “Unsilencing the Past: Memorializing Four Hundred Years of African Canadian History.” Multiple Lenses: Voices from the Diaspora Located in Canada, edited by David Divine, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007, pp. 11–22.
For more on Cooper’s work, see https://afuacooper.com.
Gammel, Irene, with Andrew O’Malley, Huifeng Hu, and Ranbir K. Banwait. “An Enchanting Girl: International Portraits of Anne’s Cultural Transfer.” Anne’s World: A New Century of Anne of Green Gables, edited by Irene Gammel and Benjamin Lefebvre, U of Toronto P, 2010, pp. 166–91.
Geissler, Shawna, and Lynn A. Cecil. “Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anglocentric Island: (I) Anne as Colonizer (II) Commodification and False Memories.” CREArTA, vol. 5 (Special issue on L.M. Montgomery’s Interior and Exterior Landscapes), 2005, pp. 196–208.
Gerson, Carole. “L.M. Montgomery and Indigeneity.” Acadiensis: Journal of the History of the Atlantic Region. 14 June 2019.
Keen, Paul. “‘No London Street Arab for Me’: The Unnatural Orphan in Anne of Green Gables.” L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature(s), edited by Rita Bode and Jean Mitchell, McGill-Queens UP, 2018, pp. 157–170.
Lefebvre, Benjamin. “Pigsties and Sunsets: L.M. Montgomery, A Tangled Web, and a Modernism of Her Own.” English Studies in Canada, vol. 31, no. 4, December 2005, pp. 123–46.
Mackey, Margaret. “Anne of Green Gables, Elijah of Buxton, and Margaret of Newfoundland.” Canadian Children’s Literature/Littérature canadienne pour la jeunesse, vol. 34, no. 2, Fall 2008, pp. 7–29.
McCabe, Kevin. “Ethnic Minorities in L.M. Montgomery’s Writing.” The Lucy Maud Montgomery Album, compiled by Kevin McCabe and edited by Alexandra Hebron, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1999, pp. 461–463.
Mitchell, Jean. “Civilizing Anne: Missionaries of the South Seas, Cavendish Evangelicalism, and the Crafting of Anne of Green Gables.” Anne Around the World: L.M. Montgomery and Her Classic, edited by Jean Ledwell and Jean Mitchell, McGill-Queens UP, 2013, pp. 147–164.
Smith, Michelle J., Kristine Moruzi, and Clare Bradford. From Colonial to Modern: Transnational Girlhood in Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand Children’s Literature, 1840–1940. U of Toronto P, 2018.
Steffler, Margaret. “Anne in a ‘Globalized’ World: Nation, Nostalgia, and Postcolonial Perspectives of Home.” Anne’s World: A New Century of Anne of Green Gables, edited by Irene Gammel and Benjamin Lefebvre, U of Toronto P, 2010, pp. 150–165.
Thomas, Ebony, Elizabeth. “The Pleasure of Dreaming: How L.M. Montgomery Shaped My Lifeworlds.” A Narrative Compass: Stories that Guide Women’s Lives, edited by Betsy Hearne and Roberta Seelinger Trites, U of Illinois P, 2009, pp. 80–95.
Creative Non-Fiction
Gatchalian, C.E. “Anne Shirley Was the Best Friend a Queer Brown Boy Could Have.” 13 June 2019. Electric Literature.com.
---. The Hanging of Angelique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montreal. Harper Collins Canada, 2007.
French, Whitney, editor. Black Writers Matter. U of Regina P, 2019.
Hamilton, Sylvia. “A Daughter’s Journey.” Canadian Women’s Studies/Les cahiers de la femme, vol. 23, no. 2, 2004, pp. 6–12.
Non-Fiction
Carter, Sarah. Lost Harvests: Prairie Indian Reserve Farmers and Government Policy. McGill-Queens UP, 1990.
Clarke, George Elliott. Directions Home: Approaches to African-Canadian Literature. U of Toronto P, 2012.
---. Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature. U of Toronto P, 2002.
Francis, Jesse, and A.J.B. Johnston. Ni’n na L’nu The Mi’kmaq of Prince Edward Island. Acorn P, 2013.
Joe, Rita. “Introduction.” The Mi’kmaq Anthology, edited by Rita Joe and Lesley Choyce, Pottersfield P, 1997, pp. 5–12.
Mi’gmawei Gesp’gewa’gi Mawiomi. Nta’tugwaqanminen: Our Story: Evolution of the Gespe’gewa’gi Mi’gwaq. Fernwood Publishing, 2016.
Whitfield, Harvey Amani. Black Slavery in the Maritimes: A History in Documents. Broadview P, 2018.
---. North to Bondage: Loyalist Slavery in the Maritimes. U of British Columbia P, 2016.
For more on Whitfield’s work, see https://www.uvm.edu/cas/history/profiles/harvey-amani-whitfield.
Whitehead, Ruth Holmes. Black Loyalists: Southern Settlers of Nova Scotia’s First Free Black Communities. Nimbus Publishing, 2013.
---. The Old Man Told Us: Excerpts from Mi’kmaw History, 1500–1950. Nimbus Publishing, 1991.
Wicken, William C. The Colonization of Mi’kmaw Memory and History, 1794–1928: The King v. Gabriel Sylliboy. U of Toronto P, 2012.
Fiction, Children’s and YA Fiction, and Poetry
Cooper, Afua, and Wilfried Raussert. Black Matters. Fernwood Publishing, 2020.
Grant, Shauntay. Africville. Groundwood Books, 2018.
---. The City Speaks in Drums. Nimbus Publishing, 2010.
---. Up Home. Nimbus Publishing, 2008.
For more on Grant’s work, see https://shauntaygrant.com/home.
Hill, Lawrence. The Book of Negroes. Harper Collins Canada, 2007.
Joe, Rita. Poems of Rita Joe. Abanaki P, 1978.
---. Song of Eskasoni. Ragweed P, 1988.
---. The Blind Man’s Eyes. Brenton Books, 2015.
---, and Lesley Choyce. The Mi’kmaq Anthology. Pottersfield P, 1997.
For more of Joe’s work, see http://www.stu-acpa.com/rita-joe.html.
Jones, El. Live from the Afrikan Resistance! Fernwood Publishing, 2014.
Teran, Andi. Ana of California. Penguin Books, 2015.
Tynes, Maxine. The Door of My Heart. Pottersfield P, 1993.
---. Woman Talking Woman. Pottersfield P, 1990.
Wesley, Gloria Ann. Abigail’s Wish. Nimbus Publishing, 2016.
---. Chasing Freedom. Roseway, 2011.
---. If This Is Freedom. Roseway, 2013.
For more on Wesley’s work, see https://www.writers.ns.ca/members/profile/240.
Websites and Resources
Black Loyalist Heritage Centre:
