Books
Here & Now, Volume 2: An Anthology of Queer Italian-Canadian Writing
Editor: Licia Canton
Publisher: Longbridge Books, 2024
Here & Now, Volume 2: An Anthology of Queer Italian-Canadian Writing features the work of more than 50 contributors. With an introduction by scholars Paolo Frascà and Mirko Casagranda, Here & Now, Volume 2 continues the conversations prompted by Volume 1 (2021) and gives a more complete account of today’s reality. The volume was published with the support of Queer Studies in Quebec Research Group (ÉRÉQQ), Association of Italian-Canadian Writers (AICW), English Language Network (ELAN), Mariano A. Elia Chair at York University, Villa Charities, University of Birmingham, Frank Iacobucci Centre for Italian-Canadian studies and Accenti Magazine. Here & Now, Volume 2 contributes to the fields of Canadian literature, Italian-Canadian writing, migration and diaspora studies.
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Here & Now: An Anthology of Queer Italian-Canadian Writing
Editor: Licia Canton
Publisher: Longbridge Books, 2021
Here & Now: An Anthology of Queer Italian-Canadian Writing is the most comprehensive volume yet of queer Italian-Canadian writing, and a milestone in Italian-Canadian studies and Canadian literature. The writings in this groundbreaking anthology take readers on a journey that interweaves private and public spaces, eliciting love and anger, laughter and tears.
Featuring more than 35 established and emerging writers, with an introduction by literary scholars Domenico A. Beneventi, Michela Baldo and Paolo Frascà, the volume was published with the support of Queer Studies in Quebec Research Group (ÉRÉQQ), Association of Italian-Canadian Writers (AICW), Frank Iacobucci Centre for Italian-Canadian Studies at University of Toronto, Mariano A. Elia Chair at York University, English Language Arts Network (ELAN), Department of Humanistic Studies at University of Calabria and Accenti Magazine.
Here & Now: An Anthology of Queer Italian-Canadian Writing is an essential volume for scholars and students as well as the public at large.
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Special Issue of Italian Canadiana, Volume 34 (2020)
Editor: Delia De Santis,
New Perspectives in Italian Canadian Writing: Dynamics of Cultural Inheritance
This volume is an open door that allows the reader into a space where cultural identity is still a topic to be studied and discussed, as the impact of immigration cannot and must not be totally dismissed. However, we are now seeing a transformation whereby memory in its more esoteric form, is opening the passage into a more artistic and literary representation of migration for Italian Canadian Writers. This movement is shown clearly in the essays, both academic and personal, fiction and faction, poems and interviews, contributed by the 27 authors, whose work fills the 185 pages of this book.
To purchase this book, please write to: info@aicw.ca
People, Places, Passages: An Anthology of Canadian Literature
Editors: Giulia De Gasperi, Delia De Santis, Caroline Morgan Di Giovanni
Publisher: Longbridge Books, 2018
People, Places, Passages features short stories, poems, memoirs, and excerpts of plays and novels in English, French, Italian, and a variety of Italian dialects. Its nearly 100 contributors are established and prize-winning Canadian authors as well as emerging writers. The volume is the most comprehensive collection of writings by Canadians of Italian heritage, and a milestone in the history of the Association of Italian Canadian Writers (AICW). This volume takes readers on a journey through a myriad of worlds and themes: Canada and Italy, past and present, immigration, language, memory, friendship, love, fear, mystery, tears and laughter. People, Places, Passages is an essential volume for students, scholars, and the general public.
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Exploring Voice: Italian Canadian Female Writers
Editors: Venera Fazio, Delia De Santis
Publisher: Frank Iacobucci Centre for Italian Canadian Studies, 2016
Exploring Voice features the fiction, nonfiction and poetry of 26 Canadian women of Italian heritage. Each creative contribution is followed by an essay written by the author herself or by another writer or critic. The essays give us honest and thoughtful insights into the lives of these talented women. They provide biographical details and an overview or analysis of the writer's accomplishments and, often, the motivation for writing. We are taken along on the inner journeys that have led these women to self-discovery and literary success. Writing is an act of communication and publishing one's work requires courage and perseverance. To quote Marisa De Franceschi's poem “Becoming a Writer," in her collection Random Thoughts: to be a writer one needs “The skin of a crocodile / The shell of a turtle / The stamina of a bull."
To purchase this book please write to: info@aicw.ca
Behind Barbed Wire: Creative Works on the Internment of Italian Canadians
Editors: Licia Canton, Domenic Cusmano, Michael Mirolla, Jim Zucchero
Publisher: Guernica Editions, 2012
Behind Barbed Wire: Creative Works on the Internment of Italian Canadians presents fiction and nonfiction, poetry and drama, and visual art – works which bring to life the memory of the internment of Italian Canadians during the Second World War. Through words and images, writers and visual artists reconstruct a hidden past and give voice to those who were silenced by the shame or the inability to speak out. Their works interpret the painful reality that some Italians in Canada lived during, and after, the period of the Internment. The appearance of this book, together with its companion volume of essays Beyond Barbed Wire, marks the passage of Italian Canadians from victims to agents of social change.
Behind Barbed Wire is available as a free e-book at: www.guernicaeditions.com/free_ebooks
Behind Barbed Wire: Essays on the Internment of Italian Canadians
Editors: Licia Canton, Domenic Cusmano, Michael Mirolla, Jim Zucchero
Publisher: Guernica Editions, 2012Beyond Barbed Wire: Essays on the Internment of Italian Canadians include diaries, oral histories and testimonials as well as commentary and analysis. Some essays offer provocative points to stir debate; others provide thoughtful reflection and posit useful questions. These writings explore contentious issues and raise important questions about rights and responsibilities, power and privilege, political processes, ethnic identity, collective memory, and other topics relevant to contemporary Canadian society.
Beyond Barbed Wire is a co-publication with the Columbus Centre of Toronto. It is available as a free e-book at: www.guernicaeditions.com/free_ebooks
Reflections on Culture: An Anthology of Creative and Critical Writing
Editors: Licia Canton, Venera Fazio, Jim Zucchero
Publisher: Frank Iacobucci Centre for Italian Canadian Studies, 2010Reflections on Culture is a unique anthology of fiction and poetry, memoir and critical essays, painting and sculpture. The great variety of creative contributions in this book reflects the diverse ways of approaching the complex meanings of being Italian Canadian in the literary, artistic and cultural landscape of Canada. This anthology contributes to the ongoing discussion about Canadian identity. In particular it addresses the status of Italian Canadian literary artists: How are we doing? What are we doing? Why does it matter? By bringing together the works of established and emerging voices, and with an introduction by Licia Canton and Jim Zucchero, Reflections on Culture is an important contribution to Italian Canadiana and Canadian multiethnic studies.
To purchase this book please write to: info@aicw.ca
Strange Peregrinations: Italian Canadian Literary Landscapes
Editors: Delia De Santis, Venera Fazio, Anna Foschi Ciampolini
Publisher: Frank Iacobucci Centre for Italian Canadian Studies, 2007
For the past twenty years, the biennial conference of the AICW has provided a meeting place for writers of Italian origin and for those who share an interest in the culture and traditions of Italy. Strange Peregrinations is the literary culmination of the presentations made by the authors who gathered at the 2006 conference held in Vancouver, BC where they enjoyed four days of lively debate, poetic license and fictional explorations on the universal themes of migration and cultural transformations. In the introduction to this eclectic anthology, Peter Oliva writes of the “pursuit in trying to bridge two cultures,” and says that “we are scheduled for flights of fancy and hope.” It is clear that such “flights” already have a strong beginning in the recurring themes reflected in the works included in this collection of essays, fiction and non-fiction prose, poetry, and songs.
To purchase this book please write to: info@aicw.ca
Writing Beyond History: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry
Editors: Licia Canton, Delia De Santis, Venera Fazio
Publisher: Cusmano Communications, 2006
Writing Beyond History is the literary expression of thirty contemporary writers who share a connection to Italy as an inspiration for their craft. No matter the genre or the language, the familiar comes through in their very diverse writings. Edited by Licia Canton, Delia De Santis and Venera Fazio, this book is a snapshot of a literary journey and a record of a cultural identity in the making. Writing Beyond History is an important contribution to the Canadian literary scene.
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The Dynamics of Cultural Exchange: Creative and Critical Works
Editor: Licia Canton
With an Introduction by Christl Verduyn and Licia Canton
Publisher: Cusmano Communications, 2002
The Dynamics of Cultural Exchange is a remarkable collection of critical essays and creative works – short stories, poetry, and drama – in English, French and Italian. One of the pleasures of reading this collection is the variety of themes and styles it encompasses. A number of topics recur, such as the challenges of language and translation, relations between the generations, history and memory, and the persistent theme of identity. The Dynamics of Cultural Exchange is an important contribution to Canadian multiethnic studies. The dynamics of cultural exchange, this collection proposes, occur between writers and artists, not only of Italian descent but of other cultural heritages as well. This volume represents a bridging of the arts and a bridging of cultures; it evokes an encounter among artists (writers, painters, musical performers and filmmakers) from across Canada and the Atlantic who work in many forms and who are influenced by many languages and cultures.
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Writers in Transition: The Proceedings of the First National Conference of Italian-Canadian Writers
Editors: C. Dino Minni, Anna Foschi Ciampolini
Publisher: Guernica Editions, 1990
In November 1985, several writers, including Joseph Pivato, Antonio D’Alfonso, Pasquale Verdicchio and C. Dino Minni thought a national conference to take stock and discuss future directions might be a good idea. The Italian Cultural Centre in Vancouver graciously offered its premises, the Italian Cultural Institute agreed to help, and an ad hoc Literary Committee quickly came together. The Committee decided to interpret the word writer in the widest possible way to include novelists, poets, playwrights, historians, filmmakers and critics. It also decided that the emphasis of the Vancouver gathering would be on literature. This collection of the proceedings, Writers in Transition, contains most of the scholarly papers delivered, plus a sampling of round-table seminar presentations, in the three languages of the conference. The editors have arranged them under common topics: the ethnic viewpoint, literary criticism, poetry. As these proceedings show, the 23 writers (including two guests from Italy) who participated in the conference agree that (1) Italian-Canadian writing is more than immigrant literature, (2) Italian-Canadian writing is about to enter its second stage of development, (3) Italian-Canadian writing is expanding the tradition of Survival to include the tradition of the Journey, (4) literary criticism of Italian-Canadian writing should take more than a thematic approach, and (5) the options for tomorrow are varied.
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