WordStage featuring the Quattro Books Writers

Dooney's Cafe 

(formerly Annex Live) 

December 14, 2011

298 Brunswick Avenue  (south of Bloor)

7:30 pm sharp

FEATURING:

Binnie Brennan’s short stories have appeared in a number of Canadian and American literary journals. Her best-selling novella Harbour View was shortlisted for an Atlantic Book Award, longlisted for the ReLit Award, and was co-winner of the 2009 Ken Klonsky Novella Contest. Binnie is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers and Queen’s University. Born in Toronto, Binnie lives in Halifax, where she is a violist with Symphony Nova Scotia. www.binniebrennan.com/

Carole Giangrande’s novella, A Gardener On The Moon, was co-winner of the 2010 Ken Klonsky Novella Contest, and is published by Quattro Books. She's the author of two novels (An Ordinary Star and A Forest Burning), a short story collection, Missing Persons), and two non-fiction books. She’s worked as a broadcast journalist for CBC Radio, and her fiction, articles and reviews have appeared in Canada’s major journals and newspapers. Between hosting the worldwide literary podcast Words to Go, and commenting as The Thoughtful Blogger, she’s found time to complete a new novella, Midsummer, from which she’ll read at WordStage. www.carolegiangrande.com/

Koom Kankesan was born in Sri Lanka. Canada is the fourth country that he and his family lived and is the one where they settled down. He's a proud Torontonian and has a background in English Literature and Film Studies. Suffering from premature old man syndrome, he's worked at a variety of ill-fitting jobs, most recently and most consistently as a high school English teacher, while trying to write on the side. His novella, The Panic Button, about a family living in Scarborough, has been praised by comic book visionary Alan Moore and largely ignored by everyone else. It has the somewhat dubious honour of being shortlisted for the Scarborough Book Award.

Paul Seesequasis is a writer and journalist. He was the founding editor of the award-winning 'Aboriginal Voices' magazine, and recipient of the Maclean-Hunter journalist award. His short stories and feature writing have been published in Canada and abroad. Tobacco Wars is his first novella.

Hosted by Maddy Curry and Sonia Di Placido. The fun keeps going - join the writers afterwards for the Quattro Christmas party!

A Place in the Spotlight

NSNIG&F co-organizer, poet and 
the night's emcee Giovanna Riccio

Award winning poet Cathy Petch starts the evening

Writer Diane Bracuk read a piece on Warsaw

Writer Bianca Lakoseljac

Poet/Writer Liz Worth

NSNIG&F Co-organizer & 
Writer Michelle Alfano

NSNIG Giovanna at rest

Darlene Madott, writer and NSNIG extraordinaire

Karen and Jane Somerville

Liz and friend

Francesca and Talia, friends of the NSNIG&F

NSNIG&F supporter 
and Poet Valentino Assenza

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 novella Made Up Of Arias (Blaurock Press) won the 2010 Bressani Prize for Short Fiction. Her short story “Opera”, on which her novella Made Up Of Arias 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 that will be featured on OMNI-TV. She is currently at work at a new novel entitled Vita’s Prospects.

Diane Bracuk is a freelance writer specializing in health and women's issues. Her fiction and poems have appeared in Canadian journals such as The Antigonish Review, TickleAce and Other Voices. In Great Britain, Diane’s work has been published in Image, Ireland's largest circulation woman's magazine, and You Magazine, part of the Saturday Supplement of England's Daily Mail.

Bianca Lakoseljac is the author of Bridge in the Rain, a collection of stories linked by an inscription on a bench in Toronto’s High Park; and Memoirs of a Praying Mantis, a collection of poetry. She has completed a novel, Summer of the Dancing Bear, which explores “the rite of passage” of a fourteen year old girl befriended by a Gypsy clan. Bianca holds a BA and MA in English from York University. She taught communication courses at Ryerson University and Humber College. She is Past President of the Canadian Authors Association, Toronto, and has served as judge for various literary contests. For more than half of her life, she’s been married to a man with an Italian background, and feels right at home among the not so NICE Italian girls. And it was only through a toss of a coin that her last name is Lakoseljac and not Maggiori.

Karen Mulhallen has just published her poetry book which begins on Toronto Island and moves to Turkey, Italy and then returns in the fourth section to the city of Toronto. The Pillow Books is an extended conversation with Sei Shonagon, a woman in the Japanese Court in the eleventh century. Although a pillow book might be understood as a secret document, by making such a text into a book the author tests the boundaries of secrecy in her search for an audience. It was Karen Mulhallen¹s fascination by this line between the public and the private and by the ways in which a distant culture seemed to be so close to our own that led her to write The Pillow Books.

Cathy Petch writes poetry, plays, articles, books and graffiti. She hosts the Plasticine Poetry Series in Toronto, which is now in it's fifth year. She is a member of the 2011 Toronto Poetry slam team. She has 3 chapbooks and has been published in magazine online and off. Having been raised Catholic, she loves the company of Italian girls and their not so nice ways.

Liz Worth is a Toronto-based writer. She is the author of Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond and a piece of surreal punk fiction called Eleven: Eleven. Amphetamine Heart is her first poetry collection.

And as emcee ...
Giovanna Riccio was born in Calabria, Italy, immigrated to Canada when she was six years old and grew up in Toronto. She has a degree in philosophy from the University of Toronto. Over the years, 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, was published by Quattro Books in the spring of 2011 and launched in Montreal in April 2011 in Toronto in May 2011.

Premiere of Saturnia

On the occasion of the 11th Annual Italian Language Week in the World, dedicated in 2011 to the celebration of 150th anniversary of Italy’s Unification, the Italian Cultural Institute presents the screening of the documentary SATURNIA, written, directed and produced by Ferdinando Dell'Omo and Lilia Topouzova.

SATURNIA

Written, Directed and Produced by Ferdinando Dell'Omo and Lilia Topouzova

Edited by Juan Baquero

Director of photography Maya Bankovic

Original Music by Ivo Paunov

Produced in Association with OMNI Television with

the support of The Mariano A. Elia Chair at York University

October 17, 2011

 6:30 pm

Istituto Italiano di Cultura

496 Huron St.

Toronto

Free admission

416-921-3802 x 221

More than 50 years ago, over two hundred thousand Italians boarded the glorious transatlantic Saturnia embarking on a journey to American in search for a better future. The documentary Saturnia explores the lives of four of those immigrants. We follow the story of Michelle, an Italian-Canadian author from Toronto, writing a book about her father who left Sicily on the Saturnia. He died when she was sixteen and Michelle sets on a journey into the past to understand who he was by discovering where he came from. By following her research and creative process, we will enter the lives of three of Saturnia`s passengers: Rosa in Montreal, Silvano in Vancouver, and Antonio in Edmonton. Everyday people whose extraordinary stories move and inspire us.They will help us to reconstruct the immigration experience and the challenges that Italians faced during their trip across the ocean, and the ones that followed when they finally arrived in America. Step by step the movie recalls and reconstructs the transatlantic journey between Italy and Canada, but also the memories of small villages in post WWII Italy and the first years of adjustment in the new world.

Immigration is a complex and multilayered and making of a film about it mirrors the experience itself. In order to capture the essence of the Italian-Canadian immigration story, the documentary Saturnia relied on the collaboration of several key institutions and individuals. . The commissioning of the film and the commercial support, indispensable for its realization, was completed in association with OMNI Television. The academic research and scholarly perspective,crucial for the historical narrative ,was enabled by the Mariano A.Elia Chair at York University. Access to rare archival footage and still photographs which resurrected forgotten moments from a distant past was enabled by the Pier 21 Museum in Halifax and the Fondazione Ansaldo in Italy. The Genova-Liguria Film Commission and DocLab Productions Roma, allowed the shooting and production of Saturnia on Italian soil.

Ferdinando Dell’Omo is an Italian-Canadian documentary filmmaker and journalist. He has worked in the past on a series on ship travel and memory, entitled Navi della Memoria. His work has been broadcast both in Italy and Canada.

Lilia Topouzova is a historian and a documentary film-maker. A Ph.D. candidate at the History Department at the University of Toronto, her work explores the visual and textual representation of violence and its remembrance. She is the recipient of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant of Canada. She is the co-author of the award-winning documentary feature, The Mosquito Problem & Other Stories (dir. A. Paounov) which premiered at Cannes and TIFF in 2007 and won the human-rights award at the Sarajevo Film Festival.

For more info please go to: http://tinyurl.com/3mvzthv

Descant's Launch of the Sicily issue

October 5, 2011, 7.00pm

Grano Restaurant

2035 Yonge St.

(three blocks north of Davisville)

Toronto

Come hear the Sicily issue's contributors of poetry and prose:

Valentino Assenza

Gil Fagiani

Darlene Madott

Gianna Patriarca

Doors opening at 7 p.m.

Arrive early to partake in the cash bar and the antipasti!

Issue in stores September 20, 2011

Grano Restaurant





















2035 Yonge St.





















(three blocks north of Davisville)





















Toronto

























































October 5, 2011





















7.00pm
































Come hear the Sicily issue's contributors of poetry and prose:





















Valentino Assenza





















Gil Fagiani





















Darlene Madott





















Gianna Patriarca

























































Doors opening at 7 p.m.





















Arrive early to partake in the cash bar and the antipasti!





















Issue in stores September 20, 2011

The Yellow Door
POETRY AND PROSE READING
3625 Aylmer, Montreal (between Pine & Prince Arthur)

Tel: 514-845-2600

Doors 7:00p   Reading at 7.30p

$5 at the door
www.yellowdoor.org

      Featuring:  

          Michelle Alfano

Co-organizer of the (Not So) Nice Italian Girls & Co-Editor with Descant. Bressani Prize winner for Made Up of Arias (Blaurock Press).

Ehab Lotayef

Author of the poetry book, To Love a Palestinian Woman, TSAR 2010. He writes in English & Arabic. www.lotayef.com

Niki Paquin

QWF Mentorship participant for non-fiction, 2008. She is working on a first book, So Close to the Sky: Journey with a Tibetan Family.

Jack Hannan

His most recent book of poetry, Some Frames, was published in April 2011 by Cormorant Books.

Catherine Chandler

Author of Lines of Flight & winner of the 2010 Howard Nemerov Award, employs form to investigate & communicate reality.

Ken Kalman

Poet, playwright & novelist. Author of Jesus Loves Me, a novel (Xlibris 2003); Short stories & poetry published in Canada and U.S.

Tom Fox

A classical singer with a rich bass voice. His repertoire includes operatic duets and solos in English, Italian, French, and Russian.

Ilona Martonfi,
Founder, Producer/Host

514-939-4173
ilona.martonfi@sympatico.ca

The NSNIG&F steam up the August night ...

Elisabeth de Mariaffi, writer

Ayelet Tsabari, writer

K.D. Miller, author of Brown Dwarf

Poet Catherine Graham

Koom Kankesan, writer & provocateur

Giovanna Riccio, Poet & NSNIG&F Co-Organizer

Writer & Draft Reading Series Founder Maria Meindl

K.D. & friends

Emcee & NSNIG&F Co-Organizer Michelle Alfano

The lovely Ayelet & the slightly startled Michelle

Poet Sonia DiPlacido at the open mike

Poet Roger Knox at the open mike

Terri Favro, writer & great NSNIG&F supporter!

Poet & Quattro Books Co-Founder Luciano Iacobelli & Giovanna

Koom and friends

Sonia & Giovanna

Michelle & Luciano

An appreciative crowd at the Annex Live ...

The NSNIG&F get hot and steamy ...

Celebrate our second anniversary by bringing a poem to share 
at the open mike to be held after the readings.

Elisabeth de Mariaffi's work has been widely published in Canadian magazines, including The New Quarterly, The FIddlehead, This Magazine, Prairie Fire, and The Puritan, and is taught as part of the short story curriculum at the University of Waterloo. She is one of the wild minds behind Toronto Poetry Vendors, a new press that sells poetry broadsides from refurbished vending machines in the downtown area. Her poetry chapbook, Letter on St. Valentine's Day, was published last year by The Emergency Response Unit. Currently at work on a novel, Elisabeth lives in Little Portugal with two children and one maniac dog.

Catherine Graham is the author of four critically acclaimed poetry collections: The Watch (Abbey Press) and the poetry trilogy Pupa, The Red Element and Winterkill (Insomniac Press). She holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from Lancaster University (UK) and teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. Visit: www.catherinegraham.com

Koom Kankesan is a writer with a background in English Literature and Film Studies. He has written short stories and small anecdotal pieces for various journals, and has published film and book reviews with newspapers such as the Montreal Gazette. He is an unabashed fan of comic books and movies. The Panic Button is his first novella.

K.D. Miller, B.A, M.F.A., has published stories and essays in a variety of Canadian literary magazines. Her work has appeared in Best Canadian Stories – Oberon 2008 and 2009, in The Journey Prize Anthology, and has been broadcast by the CBC. She has published two collections of stories: A Litany in Time of Plague and Give Me Your Answer; an essay collection: Holy Writ; and a novel: Brown Dwarf.  K.D. Miller is a teacher of writing courses and workshops, and is both a founding member and Editor of Red Claw Press. She lives in Toronto. Her website is: http://www.dawnwriter.com/.

Giovanna Riccio was born in Calabria, Italy, immigrated to Canada when she was 6 years old and grew up in Toronto. She has a degree in philosophy from the University of Toronto. Over the years, 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, was published by Quattro Books in the spring of 2011 and launched in Montreal in April and in Toronto in May 2011.

Ayelet Tsabari is a two-time winner of Event’s Creative Non-Fiction Contest, and a first runner-up for Prism International Non-Fiction contest. Her fiction was published in Grain and Room, and her unpublished manuscript, You and What Army and Other True Stories was shortlisted to the First Book Competition by Anvil Press. She’s currently working on a collection of short fiction. She often dreams of warmer places.

And as emcee ...

Michelle Alfano is a co-organizer of the (Not So) Nice Italian Girls & Friends Reading Series and a Co-Editor with Descant. Her novella Made Up of Arias (Blaurock Press) won the 2010 Bressani Prize for Short Fiction. Her short story “Opera”, on which her novella Made Up Of Arias 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 that will be featured on OMNI-TV. She is currently at work at a new novel entitled Vita’s Prospects.

Jazz meets Poetry

The Sicilian Jazz Project meets the Poets

  

Michael Occhipinti & The Sicilian Jazz Project

join forces with some of Toronto's most dynamic Italian-Canadian poets and spoken-word artists, including:

Domenico Capilongo

Gianna Patriarca

Luciano Iacobelli

Desi Di Nardo

Val Assenza

Giovanna Riccio

and Venus Gennaro whose CD of Sicilian poetry

features music by Dominic Mancuso

This unique evening of word and song will feature the SKP performing

its own JUNO-nominated repertoire, as well as joining forces with

the poets to create an improvised soundtrack.

For more info please go to:

http://www.lula.ca/Events/2011/june/Sicilian.html

Wednesday June 29th, 2011

Lula Lounge

1585 Dundas St. W., west of Dufferin

Tel. 416-588-0307

e-mail: info@lula.ca

The (Not So) Nice Italian Girls ask "What is a Man?"

Emcee/co-organizer Giovanna Riccio ponders "What is a man?"

Poet Rocco de Giacomo



Rocco starts the reading off ...



Poet Jason Paradiso reading both poetry and prose



Poet and Quattro Books Partner Luciano Iacobelli

Writer/poet Pasha Malla

Pasha

Poet Sam Pupo

Poet Valentino Assenza

Poets Denis, Gianna and emcee/co-organizer Michelle Alfano

Enrica and Terry, colleagues and friends, part of Sam's entourage

Pasha Malla and friends including Jason & Kara Bristow

The (Not So) Nice Italian Girls