poetry ~ prose ~ comedy
in honour of Italian heritage month
Saturday, June 24, 2017
2:00 to 5:00pm
Black Swan Tavern (2nd Floor)
154 Danforth Avenue, Toronto
featuring
2-3pm
Gianna Patriarca is an award-winning author of eight books
of poetry, one children’s book and a collection of short fiction. Her work is
extensively anthologized in Canada, Italy and the USA and appears on University
courses in all three countries. Her work has been adapted for stage and radio
drama and featured in numerous documentaries. Her first book, Italian Women and Other Tragedies, is in
its fourth printing and recently was translated into Italian and launched at
the University of Naples Orientale and Bologna. Website: giannapatriarca.com
Darlene Madott is a Toronto lawyer and award-winning
writer. Author of seven books, her short
fiction has garnered literary awards, including the title story of her seventh
book, Making Olives and Other Family
Secrets (Ripasso), which won the Bressani Literary Award in 2008, and also
included Touching Calabria, a winner
in an Accenti Magazine competition. Her
collection of linked short-stories Stations
of the Heart (Exile Editions, 2013) again won the Bressani Literary Award
in 2014. That collection included Waiting, short-listed for the
Vanderbilt/Exile Short Fiction Competition 2011-12 in the established writer
category. Website: www.darlenemadott.com
Tina Tzatzanis is a teacher-librarian at an elementary
school in Toronto. She is currently on sabbatical, working furiously to
complete the first draft of her first novel about a young woman in a small
Greek village during the 50s, 60s, and 70s whose life, heavily influenced by patriarchal
forces, the politics of the times, and fate, frays into three distinct paths.
She is of Greek and Irish descent and lives with her husband, her two almost
adult children and a cat that thinks she is theirs.
Sonia Di Placido is a poet and writer, completing her M.F.A.
from UBC. A graduate of the Ryerson University Theatre School with an Honours B.A.
in Humanities from York University, Sonia has experience as a Supernumerary
with the Canadian Opera Company, is a member of the Association of Italian
Canadian Writers and The League of Canadian Poets. She has published chapbooks,
poetry, profile pieces, interviews and has written reviews for literary
print/online journals and various anthologies: Poems and Reviews can be found
in Carousel, The Puritan, Jacket2,
Canthius and The California Journal
of Women Writers. Exaltation In
Cadmium Red, her first book was published in 2012. A second book of poetry
is forthcoming with Guernica Editions in 2018. Website: www.diplacido.wordpress.com
Music by Nigel Barnes
Nigel Barnes began playing the guitar at a young age.
He has played in multiple cover and original bands over the years and has gone
on to share his talent with musicians such as Don Kerr, Rheostatics, Ron
Sexsmith, Lester McLean, Ellen Carol and musical director and composer Andrew
Craig. In 2006, he released It Is What It Is. He is currently recording new music. Music is
his passion, his dream and his refuge.
3-4pm
Bianca Lakoseljac’s second novel, Stone Woman, is set in Toronto—and it relives Toronto's 1967 summer
of love. Bianca is also the author of a novel, Summer of the Dancing Bear; a collection of stories, Bridge in the Rain; and a book of
poetry, Memoirs of a Praying Mantis.
Her work has been featured in various literary journals and anthologies such as
50+ Poems for Gordon Lightfoot, and
Inanna Publications Literary Quarterly. She is the liaison for the National
Reading Campaign of the Writers Union of Canada; and is past president of the
Canadian Authors Association, Toronto. She has judged various national literary
competitions. Bianca was the Open Book Toronto Writer-in-Residence for November
2016. She has taught at Ryerson University and Humber College. Website:
biancalakoseljac.ca
Caroline Morgan Di Giovanni grew up in suburban Philadelphia, PA., and
came to Toronto as a student at St. Michael’s College, UofT. Her studies
concentrated on English language and literature, with a course in Italian
grammar and a one-year course in Dante. She met Alberto Di Giovanni, and after
graduate studies they married. She has lived and worked in Toronto ever since.
She was elected as a school board trustee, and then as a city councillor. With
support from Centro Scuola e Cultura Italiana she edited three anthologies of
Italian Canadian poetry and prose; she also has produced two collections of her
own poetry. She is the proud mother of three, and happy Nonna to three
grandchildren. Her work includes Looking
at Renaissance Paintings and Other Poems (Quattro Books, 2008) and Second Collection (LyricalMyrical,
2012). The anthologies are: Italian
Canadian Voices, An anthology of Poetry and Prose (1946-1983) and (Mosaic
Press, 1984); Italian Canadian Voices: A
Literary Anthology (1946-2004) and (Mosaic Press, 2006) and Bravo! A Selection of Prose and Poetry by
Italian Canadian Writers (Quattro Books, 2012).
Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews has written five collections of poetry: The Whispers of Stones, Sea Glass, The Red Accordion, Letters from the Singularity and A Jar of Fireflies. Nature and one's place in it, as well as memory
and social justice are her muse. Her poems The
Red Accordion and Emerald City
were shortlisted for Descant's
Winston Collins Best Canadian Poem Prize and The Malahat Review's Open Seasons Award respectively. In 2015, her
poem Ghost received first prize in
Toronto's Big Pond Rumours Journal Contest. Josie is the author of two
non-fiction books: How The Italians
Created Canada and In the Name of
Hockey. She is the host and co-ordinator of the Oakville Literary Café.
Isabella Colalillo Katz is a poet, writer, editor, translator and
professor based in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of three books of poetry:
Tasting Fire (Guernica), And Light Remains (Guernica) and Marlene Dietrich’s Eyes (Ekstasis,
2014). Isabella has translated Elio Vittorini’s prose poem novel, Conversazione in Sicilia/Sicilian
Conversations parts of which were published in Sweet Lemon 2, (Legas, 2010). Her poetry, short stories, critical
essays on writing and creativity and book reviews appear in numerous magazines,
journals and anthologies, such as Exploring
Voice (Italian Canadiana, 2016). She is the poetry editor for Braided Way journal. Website: www.astralsite.com/Isabella
Music by Nigel Barnes
4-5pm
After working for
many years as a public servant in Ontario, Lucia
Cascioli has returned to her love of creative writing. Her books include: Struck (2011); Shifters (2011); Spiral
(2011) – Finalist, Next Generation Indie Book Awards; From Scratch to Finish (2012); Letters
to the Grave (2012) – Honourable Mention, Whistler Independent Book Awards;
WTF? Tales from the Burbs (2013); The Getaway Book (2015); and Markers of Descent (2015). Her work has
also appeared in Stile Magazine.
Lucia enjoys participating in readings, lectures and book fairs and is
currently working on her next book. Website: www.luciacascioli.ca
Carmela Circelli was born in Southern Italy and grew up in
Montreal. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from York University and has been
teaching in the Humanities and Philosophy departments of York University since
1990. She also has a private practice as a psychotherapist in Toronto. Recently
she published a philosophical memoir called Sweet
Nothing: An Elemental Case for Taking out Time with Quattro Books. She is
currently working on a novel titled The
Last of the Daydreamers.
Sandra Battaglini is an award winning stand-up comic, actor
and writer. She is the 2013 Canadian Comedy Award winner for her solo show, Classy Lady, directed by Phil Luzi, that
premiered in Toronto in 2012 and most recently was voted 'Best Female Standup’ by
NOW Magazine. Past performances
include, Hard Headed Woman (Canadian
Comedy Award Winner, 2007), Small
Battalion of Soldiers (Canadian Comedy Award Nomination, 2005). She tours
with national comedy club chain, Yuk Yuks and co-hosts two of Toronto’s most
alternative comedy nights, Family Slides and The Sal & Sandy Show with
Phil Luzi. Sandra appears in David Cronenberg's latest feature, Maps to the Stars that premiered at TIFF
in 2014, CBC's sketch show Humantown,
NBC Seeso's flagship web series, The Amazing
Gayle Pile and upcoming episodes of medical drama Saving Hope and Odd Squad.
She is currently in development and on original concepts, including Knitterati
and Family Slides with Phil Luzi. Not only has she performed throughout Canada,
she has also been invited to perform in New York, Chicago and L.A. and was a
semi-finalist in the She Devil Comedy Competition in NYC. Website: sandrabattaglini.net
Michelle Alfano is a former Associate Editor with the
literary quarterly Descant and the
co-organizer of the annual Love Poetry Festival. Her novella, Made Up Of Arias, was the 2010 winner of
the Bressani Award for Short Fiction. Her short story “Opera”, on which the
novella was based, was a finalist for a Journey
Prize anthology. Her fiction and non-fiction work has been widely published
in Canada in major literary publications. She is currently at work on two
projects: a personal memoir entitled The
Unfinished Dollhouse (to be published by Cormorant Books in 2017) and the
novel Destiny, think of me while you
sleep. Blog: alitchick.blogspot.ca
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