Thursday, May 30, 2013

Italian Heritage Month Literary Marathon


Q Space at 382 College Street
June 1st, 2013 from 3:00–10:00 pm


Damiano Pietropaolo
Terri Favro
Maria Coletta McLean
Elena Basile
Bruna Di Giuseppe Bertoni
Darlene Madott
Michael Mirolla
Valentino Assenza
Sam Pupo
John Romano
Michelle Alfano
Isabella Colallilo-Katz
Caroline Di Giovanni
Celestino Di Iuliis
Luigi Ferrara
Norman Cristofoli
Joseph Maviglia
Romina Di Gasbarro
Marisa Buffone
Daniela Saioni
Rocco De Giacomo
Pier Giorgio Di Cicco
John Calabro
Domenico Capilongo
Corrado Paina
Gianna Patriarca
Luciano Iacobelli
Claudio Gaudio

Contact Luciano Iacobelli
liacobelli1@yahoo.com
416-893-7979
for more information ...

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

May Reading

Bocelli starts the evening with singing
Elizabeth Ruth reads from Matadora
Ania Szado reads from Studio Saint-Ex
Nancy Jo Cullen reads from Canary
Koom Kankesan reads from The Rajapaksa Stories
Terri Favro, co-organizer & emcee, reads from The Proxy Bride
Michelle Alfano, co-organizer and emcee, with Terri
The appreciative crowd at QSpace

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

May Reading

Nancy Jo Cullen is the fourth recipient of the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for Emerging Gay Author.  She has published collections of poetry with Calgary’s Frontenac House Press. Her short story collection, Canary is the winner of the Metcalf-Rooke 2012 prize and was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.

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. The Panic Button was his first book. The Rajapaksa Stories is his new one. Visit koomkankesan.webs.com.

Elizabeth Ruth's first novel, Ten Good Seconds of Silence was a finalist for the Writer's Trust of Canada Fiction Prize, the Amazon.ca Best First Novel Award and the City of Toronto Book Award. Her second novel, Smoke, was chosen for the 2007 One Book One Community program. In April, 2013 Elizabeth Ruth published her third novel, Matadora, to critical acclaim. In addition to Matadora, Elizabeth will also publish a GoodReads novella this year, entitled, Love You To Death. Elizabeth Ruth teaches creative writing at UofT and mentors within the Humber School for Writers. Visit www.elizabethruth.com.

Ania Szado's
new novel, Studio Saint-Ex, is a national bestseller in Canada and is forthcoming in the U.S., Russia, Italy and Poland. Her first novel, Beginning of Was, was regionally shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Best First Book. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, and an AOCA from Ontario College of Art. Ania currently mentors writers one-on-one. She is the 2013 Writer in Residence for Whistler, B.C., and will be teaching creative writing at University of Toronto in 2014. Visit her website: www.aniaszado.com.

With music by ...
Bocelli is an urban vocalist, DJ, and producer. His creative focus however is his unique form of sinjaying, a reggae infused blend of singing and rapping. Native to and living in Toronto, Bocelli is currently working on his first official EP that will feature a variety of urban genres from dance to hip-hop. Though not one to express lofty ideas in his music - preferring instead to stick to feel good, love, and even erotic lyrics - Bocelli is a philosophy professor outside the world of music, recently obtaining his Ph.D. from the University of Ottawa. As a doctor and an urban artist it perhaps comes as no surprise that Bocelli sometimes confuses himself as Clark Kent, turning into full superhero form only on the mic.

With emcees …
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 was recently featured in the documentary Saturnia featured on OMNI-TV and at the Moving Images Film Festival. She is currently at work at a new novel entitled Vita’s Prospects. She blogs at alitchick.blogspot.ca.

Terri Favro is a freelance writer and copywriter whose work has been published in magazines and anthologies, and broadcast on CBC Radio. She has won second and third-place in the Accenti Magazine Writing Contest, Honourable Mentions in the Prism Non-Fiction and Room Fiction contests, and was a Broken Pencil Deathmatch finalist. Terri has also been shortlisted for three CBC Literary Awards, the FISH Publishing Memoir, EVENT Magazine Non-fiction and Vanderbilt-Exile Short Fiction contests. Her novella, The Proxy Bride (2012), received a Ken Klonsky-Quattro Books Award. Terri collaborated on the graphic novels Bella and the Loyalist Heroine (Grey Borders, 2012) and Waiting For Mario Puzo (forthcoming). She blogs at terrifavro.ca