October Reading

Michelle Alfano is a co-organizer of the (Not So) Nice Italian Girls & Friends Reading Series and a Co-Editor with Descant. Her short story “Opera”, on which her novella Made Up Of Arias (Blaurock Press) is based, was a finalist for a Journey Prize anthology. Her fiction and non-fiction work has been widely published in major literary publications. She will be featured in a forthcoming documentary on the passengers, and the children of the passengers, of the Saturnia which will be featured on OMNI-TV. She is currently at work at a new novel entitled Vita’s Prospects. 

 

Diane Baker Mason is a novelist, columnist and poet, who daylights as a lawyer. She is the author of the novels Last Summer At Barebones and Men With Brooms, and a regular columnist and reviewer with the Women's Post and the Globe and Mail.

Yvette Barnes is renewing her connection to the genre of poetry. An accomplished writer, she often uses the form of poetry and cutting edge performance to share her message.She has performed at local events in 1999 – 2007 such as: Afrodisiac, Black Coffee, Brown Girls In Da’ Ring. She has performed internationally in Detroit, MI, - Word in Progress; Newark, NJ – Amiri Baraka’s Home Theatre; Ocho Rios, Jamaica – Irie FM radio, Host Muta Baruka.

Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews is a teacher and poet. She is a member of the League of Canadian Poets, the Canadian Federation of Poets and the Ontario Poetry Society. Josie has won several prizes for her work in both Italian and English. Her poetry in Italian won The Jury Prize at the Ottawa Italian Week Literary Contest in 2004, 2005 and 2006. She won first prize in the free verse competition of the Ontario Poetry Society's 2006 Winsome Words Anthology and first place in the Arborealis Poetry Prize for 2007. Josie is the author of  "How the Italians Created Canada" a non-fiction book released in 2008 by Lone Pine Publishing.

Darlene Madott is a lawyer and writer. Her publications include Joy, Joy, Why Do I Sing? (Women’s Press/Canadian Scholar’s Press, 2004), of which “Vivi’s Florentine Scarf” won the Paolucci Prize of the Italian-American Writer’s Association. The title story of Making Olives and Other Family Secrets (Longbridge Books, 2008) won the Bressani Literary Award. Her short story “Entering Sicily” has recently been accepted in a forthcoming issue of the literary quarterly Descant (Winter 2011) dedicated to Sicily.

Maria Pia Marchelletta is a teacher, artist, translator, poet and writer widely published internationally in several anthologies. Her most recent publications include Gatherer Streams Anthology (Hidden Brook Press) and Canadian Voices, Volume Two (Bookland Press, 2010). Maria won second prize for her short story Sentimenti che Furono in the National Ottawa Literary Festival, 2009. On International Women’s Day she was awarded a plaque by Comites for Women of Distinction. She chairs the Toronto Bayview Chapter and the Italo-Canadian Writers Chapters of the Canadian Federation of Poets. She is the Vice-President, Program Coordinator and Anthology coordinator for the Writers and Editors Network. Banacle of Enchantment and Sentieri dell’Anima are forthcoming, 2011.

Giovanna Riccio was born in Calabria, Italy and immigrated to Canada when she was six years old. Her poems have appeared in newspapers, journals, magazines, and anthologies. She is the author of the chapbook Vittorio, published by Lyricalmyrical Press in July 2010. Her book of poems Strong Bread will be published by Quattro Books in the spring of 2011. Giovanna also organizes literary events in Toronto.