The Black Atlantic Reconsidered is the first comprehensive work to explore Black Canadian literature from its beginnings to the present in the broader context of the Black Atlantic world.

Winfried Siemerling traces the evolution of black Canadian witnessing and writing from slave testimony in New France and the 1783 "Book of Negroes" through the work of contemporary black Canadian writers including Austin Clarke, George Elliott Clarke, Dionne Brand, Wayde Compton, and Esi Edugyan.

Arguing that Black writing in Canada is deeply imbricated in a historic transnational network, Winfried Siemerling explores the powerful presence of Black Canadian history, slavery, the Underground Railroad, and the Black diaspora in the work of contemporary Black Canadian writers.

Individual chapters examine the literature that has emerged from Quebec, Nova Scotia, the Prairies, and British Columbia, with attention to writing in both English and French.