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 ...

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

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

Celebrating love and desire ...

Emcee/co-organizer Giovanna Riccio

Giovanna

Poet Nancy Bullis

Poet Norman Cristofoli

Norman

Poet Sheila Stewart

Sheila

Writer & co-organizer Michelle Alfano

Michelle

KD Miller, writer

Our gracious QSpace host Luciano Iacobelli

February 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 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.

Nancy Bullis hosts HOWL, CIUT 89.5FM which airs every other Tuesday evening at 10pm. She is the author of a novella Henry (Lyrical Myrical Press), a full-length poetry book The Eel Ladder (WatershedBooks), a chapbook Leather Lattice and a spoken word performer.

Norman Cristofoli has published seven chapbooks of poetry and prose and produced two CD’s of poetry/musical collaborations. He is also the publisher of the Labour of Love literary magazine. Norman would rather sit in the back row of the balcony, as far away from the spotlight as possible, and believes bios should be buried with the artist.

Sheila Stewart has two collections of poetry, The Shape of a Throat (Signature Editions, 2012) and A Hat to Stop a Train (Wolsak and Wynn, 2003), now in its second printing. She co-edited The Art of Poetic Inquiry with Suzanne Thomas and Ardra L. Cole (Backalong Books, 2012). Sheila’s poetry has been recognized by several awards, including the gritLIT competition and the Pottersfield Portfolio Short Poem Contest. Formerly a community- based adult literacy worker, Sheila is using poetic inquiry in her Ph.D. at OISE, University of Toronto. 

And as emcee ...

Giovanna Riccio was born in Calabria and immigrated to Canada as a child. Her poems have appeared in newspapers, magazines, journals and anthologies. Her work has been translated into Romanian and a number of her poems are being translated into Italian for an upcoming anthology to be published in Italy. She is the author of Vittorio (Lyricalmyrical Press) and Strong Bread (Quattro Books).

November Reading

Sam Bernstein reading from her memoir

Sam

Writer Andrew Borkowski

Andrew

Poet Sonia DiPlacido

Sonia

Writer Garry Dwyer Joyce

Andrew and Garry

Bianca Lakoseljac

Bianca

Emcee & co-organizer Giovanna Riccio

NSNIG&F friends Christine Elias & Danielle Richardson

KD Miller and friend

Giovanna, writer Diane Bracuk and Andrew

Danielle and emcee/co-organizer Michelle Alfano

November Reading

Samantha Bernstein's memoir, Here We Are Among the Living, was published by Tightrope Books in June 2012. She is in the fourth year of an English Ph.D. at York University; her writing has appeared in various places, including Exile, The Fiddlehead and Numero Cinq. Here We Are Among the Living is available in bookstores, on Amazon, and through Tightrope Books. tightropebooks.com

Andrew Borkowski’s debut collection of short stories, Copernicus Avenue, was published by Cormorant Books in 2011. He studied Journalism and English Literature at Carleton University. Over his thirty-year career, he has published articles in the Globe and Mail, the Canadian Forum, Quill & Quire, TV Guide, and the Los Angeles Times, and contributed as an editor to titles published by John Wiley and Sons Canada, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Pearson Canada and D&M Publishers. His short fiction has appeared in Grain, The New Quarterly, and in Storyteller. His story “Twelve Versions of Lech,” was nominated for the 2007 Writer’s Trust/McClelland and Stewart Journey Prize and published in Journey Prize Stories 19.

Sonia Di Placido is a writer, performer, and artist currently completing the Creative Writing, Optional Residency MFA Program, with the University of British Columbia. She is also a graduate of the Ryerson University Theatre School and holds an Hons. BA in Humanities from York University. She has worked as a Supernumerary with the Canadian Opera Company, is a member of the Association of Italian Canadian Writers and The League of Canadian Poets. Sonia has published profile pieces, creative non-fiction, and poems in literary journals and anthologies. 

Garret Dwyer-Joyce was born and educated in Dublin, fled to Canada to escape the rain only to find himself knee-deep in snow. However, he fell in love - with a woman, not the snow - and stayed. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The Fiddlehead, Descant and Foreign Affairs. He lives in Toronto and works as a documentary producer with CTV's W5.

Bianca Lakoseljac is the author of three books: Summer of the Dancing Bear (Guernica Editions, 2012) a novel about the rite of passage of a fourteen year old girl befriended by a gypsy clan; Bridge in the Rain (Guernica Editions, 2010), 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. Her writing has been published in journals and anthologies such as the Inanna Publication and Education, York University; and Central European Association for Canadian Studies. Bianca taught communication courses at Ryerson University and Humber College. She is Past President of the Canadian Authors Association, Toronto branch, and has judged various national literary competitions. 

Nyla Matuk is the author of the chapbook, Oneiric, published in 2009. Her poems have appeared in Maisonneuve, The Walrus, Canadian Notes and Queries, ARC Poetry, the Literary Review of Canada, and The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2012.  Her first full-length collection, Sumptuary Laws, was published in Fall 2012 with Signal Editions/Véhicule Press. She was nominated twice in 2012 for The Walrus Poetry Prize.

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 featured in a documentary on the passengers of the Saturnia that was featured on OMNI-TV and at the Moving Images Film Festival. She is currently at work at a new novel entitled Vita’s Prospects. 

Giovanna Riccio was born in Calabria and immigrated to Canada as a child. Her poems have appeared in newspapers, magazines, journals and anthologies. Her work has been translated into Romanian and a number of her poems are being translated into Italian for an upcoming anthology to be published in Italy. She is the author of Vittorio (Lyricalmyrical Press) and Strong Bread (Quattro Books).