Boulevard Magazine - February 2012 Issue

REVERED AS the Shakespeare of Harlem, poet Langston Hughes captures the frustration of generations of blacks in a line from his famed work Mother to Son: “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.”

Victoria writer Esi Edugyan’s life stands as a stunning counter to the kind of hardships Hughes describes, those which blacks throughout the African Diaspora have endured and struggled against for centuries. Born in Calgary 34 years ago to Ghanaian parents, Edugyan inspires with her confident, free-to-be-me attitude and her sheer love of language.

Last November, an image of an ebullient Edugyan was published on the front page of every major