Constance Rooke calls Brand "one of the very best [poets] in the world today", and "compare[s] her to Pablo Neruda or—in fiction—to José Saramago." The Thames Art Gallery in Chatham called Brand's documentary Sisters in the Struggle "radical in its amplifications of the voices of black Canadian women, who reflect on the legacy of the intersection of racism and sexism, alongside their personal battles in community, labour and feminist organizing". Activism In addition to being a writer, Brand is a social activist. She is a founder of the newspaper Our Lives, is past chair of the Women's Issues Committee of the Ontario Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, and does work with immigrant organizations around Toronto. Awards and honours Brand's awards include: 1997: Governor General's Award for Poetry and the Trillium Book Award for Land to Light On (1997) 2003: Pat Lowther Award for thirsty (2002) 2006: City of Toronto Book Award for What We All Long For (2005) 2006: Harbourfront Festival Prize in recognition of her important contribution to literature 2006: Fellow of the Academies for Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (formerly the Royal Society of Canada) 2009: Poet Laureate of Toronto 2011: Griffin Poetry Prize for Ossuaries 2015: Honorary Doctorate from Thorneloe University 2017: Honorary degree from the University of Windsor 2017: Member of the Order of Canada (Invested on 6 September 2018) 2019: Blue Metropolis Violet Prize 2021: Windham-Campbell Literature Prize (fiction) Bibliography Poetry 1978: Fore Day Morning: Poems. Toronto: Khoisan Artists, 1979: Earth Magic. Toronto: Kids Can Press, 1982: Primitive Offensive. Toronto: Williams-Wallace International Inc., 1983: Winter Epigrams and Epigrams to Ernesto Cardenal in Defense of Claudia. Toronto: Williams-Wallace International Inc., 1984: Chronicles of the Hostile Sun. Toronto: Williams-Wallace, 1990: No Language is Neutral. Toronto: Coach House Press, ; McClelland & Stewart, 1998, 1997: Land to Light On. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2002: thirsty. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, (shortlisted for the 2003 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize) (Excerpt from thirsty, online at CBC Words at Large) 2006: Inventory. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, (Excerpt from Inventory, online at CBC Words at Large) 2010: Ossuaries. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, (winner of the 2011 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize and Pat Lowther Award) 2018: The Blue Clerk. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, (shortlisted for the 2019 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize, longlisted for the Pat Lowther Award, Governor General's Awards finalist) 2022: Nomenclature. Durham: Duke University Press, Fiction 1988: Sans Souci and Other