Michelle Alfano is a Co-Editor with Descant and co-organizer of the (Not So) Nice Italian Girls & Friends Reading Series. Her novella Made Up of Arias (Blaurock Press) won the 2010 Bressani Prize for Short Fiction. Her short story “Opera” was a finalist for a Journey Prize anthology. She will be featured in a forthcoming documentary on the passengers of the Saturnia on OMNI-TV in 2011. She is currently at work at a new novel entitled Vita’s Prospects.

Ralph Alfonso is a beat jazz poet, musician, publisher, label owner (Bongo Beat Records), and designer. A documentary on his work has been on CBC-TV and BRAVO! and the Montreal International Film Festival. http://www.bongobeat.com

George Amabile has published extensively all over the world, edited The Far Point, Northern Light and published eight books. The Presence of Fire won the CAA National Prize; his poem, Durée, placed third in the CBC Literary Competition; "Popular Crime" won the Sidney Booktown International Poetry Contest; and "Dimuendo" came third in the Petra Kenney International Poetry Competition. His most recent publication is Tasting the Dark: New and Selected Poems.

Rita Amabili auteure et théologienne, née à Montréal. Rita Amabili autrice e teologa. In mio figlio vivrai per sempre, traduzione del romanzo storico sull'immigrazione italiana in Canada, Guido le roman d'un immigrant, è stato ricevuto in giugno 2011 dai Marchigiani nel mondo della Regione Marche coll'aiuto del CONSEIL DES ARTS DU CANADA. The english version is titled Guido the story of an immigrant. Vous accueillera avec plaisir sur son site personnel maintenant en italien et en français : www.ritaamabili.com.

Elena Basile is a teacher and a translator. She also writes, which doesn't give her money, but helps her survive. She teaches at York University (English Department) and at the University of Toronto (Sexual Diversity Studies Program). She has translated poetry by Antonio D'Alfonso (in Ellipse). Her creative writing is in Italian. She writes mostly in collaboration with the artists of the Italian art publisher, Beatrix V.T.

On retiring as a university professor, Diego Bastianutti spent six years in Sicily. He resides in Vancouver. His books include A Major Selection of the Poetry of Giuseppe Ungaretti (1998 John Glassco Prize), and three volumes of poetry. Diego is the recipient of a number of national and international prizes, including the 2008 International Literary Prize. “Scritture di Frontiera” is dedicated to Umberto Saba and was a finalist for the 2009 Bressani Literary Prize.

Elettra Bedon, nata a Padova, dopo aver completato gli studi in Italia si è trasferita a Montréal (Canada) dove ha conseguito, presso l'Università McGill, un PhD in letteratura italiana, approfondendo gli studi sulla letteratura in lingua veneta del ventesimo secolo. Ha pubblicato novelle e romanzi per ragazzi, poesie e saggi su poeti in lingua veneta. Ha tradotto in italiano, dall'inglese e dal francese, poesia e romanzi. Ha curato la sezione Veneto in una antologia in inglese, dedicata alla poesia nei dialetti dell' Italia settentrionale.

Tina Biello is a poet, playwright, performer, and teacher of Commedia dell’Arte. Her poetry publications include A Cello Never Found Me and The Root Beneath the Stone. “Momenti” published by Leaf Press, shortlisted for the 2010 Bressani Literary Prize, and written with watercolours of Casacalenda by Loreta Giannetti. “Dolci Momenti” was released in 2011, with songs composed to Tina’s poetry. Tina is writing a new book about her mother’s journey through Alzheimer.

Antonio Calcagno has interests in 20th/21st century continental European thought as well as medieval and Renaissance thought. He works on questions of community, intersubjectivity, statehood, interiority, consciousness, humanism and post-humanism. Publications include: Giordano Bruno and the Logic of Coincidence (Peter Lang, 1998), The Philosophy of Edith Stein (Duquesne University Press, 2007), and Badiou and Derrida: Politics, Events and their Time (Continuum, 2007). He is the Editor of Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy.

Frank Canino's plays have been read, workshopped and staged in Toronto and across Canada, in addition to San Francisco, Memphis, Los Angeles, Alaska and New York, while several of his short pieces have been produced Off-Off-Broadway. He co-wrote the film Looking for Angelina, which has played at festivals in Canada, India and Italy, and on PBS-TV [Buffalo/Toronto].

Born in Cavarzere (Venezia), Montrealer Licia Canton is the author of Almond Wine and Fertility (2008), short stories for women and their men. She is also a literary translator and critic, and editor-in-chief of Accenti Magazine. She is (co)editor of five anthologies on Italian Canadian and multiethnic writing. A member of the Writers' Union of Canada, she has served on the board of the Quebec Writers' Federation. She holds a Ph.D. from Université de Montréal.
www.accenti.ca

Domenico Capilongo lives in Toronto with his family. He teaches high school alternative education and practices karate. He has had work published in several national and international literary magazines. His first book of poetry, I thought elvis was Italian was published in 2008 and was short-listed for the 2010 F.G. Bressani Literary Prize. His new book of jazz-inspired poetry, hold the note, was publish in 2010 with Quattro Books.
http://sites.google.com/site/domcapilongo/

Giovanna M.R. Capozzi is proud of her Sicilian roots. Her parents come from Corleone, Palermo. She writes poetry, prose and non-fiction (commentaries of society's ever changing "unchangeables") in English, Italian and French. She is currently writing an anthology of short stories, with a goal to share the beauty of the Italian culture.

Anna Maria Carlevaris holds a PhD and a MA in Art History from Concordia University, and a BFA in Photographic Arts from Ryerson University. Her writings on art have appeared in contemporary art magazines, journals, exhibition catalogues, and anthologies such as Public Art in Canada (U. of Toronto Press) and Women's Art Production Between the Wars (Ashgate Press, UK). She teaches at Dawson College, Montreal.

Donna Caruso is the author of two books: Under Her Skin (1999) and Journey Without A Map, Growing Up Italian, a memoir (2008), which won the Saskatchewan Book Award for non-fiction. Her writing has appeared in numerous anthologies and on CBC radio since 1983. Donna's piece, The Clothesline, won the 2008 Bressani Literary Prize. Donna also makes films and videos that have been broadcast nationally in Canada and have won awards internationally.

Lillian Conti immigrated in 1959. She is a teacher and mother of five. Lillian has a Theology degree and teaches Religion and Italian with the YCDSB where she is also a motivational speaker. Her book, The Two Hearts of My House, highlights her spirituality and ethnicity. She paints, plays the violin and sings in the Church choir. She reads her poems and short stories on Telelatino, Omni TV and Rogers.

Pietro Corsi, born in Molise in 1937, moved to Rome to work as a translator and co-creator of radio programs for RAI. In Canada he worked for Il Cittadino Canadese. He wrote La Giobba (Enne. Campobasso, 1982) and Winter in Montreal (Guernica, 2000), winner of the 2002 Bressani Prize. In California he was the Executive Vice President of Princess Cruises until 1992. He wrote fiction, essays, cookbooks and training manuals for the cruise industry.

Raymond Culos is the author of Vancouver's Society of Italians (Harbour, 1998). Subsequently adding volumes II and III in 2002 and 2006 respectively. He co-authored, with Clive Cocking, Britannia Remembers 100 Years of Achievement (2008). Culos published Vancouver's Shoeshine Boys (Cusmano, 2009) and currently is completing INJUSTICE SERVED, the story of BC's Italian Enemy Aliens during WW II to be released in March 2012.

Sheldon Currie taught English Literature at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, NS. He has published four novels: The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum, which was adapted into the film, Margaret’s Museum, The Company Store, Down The Coaltown Road about the internment of Italians during World War 2, and Two More Solitudes. He has also written three plays: Two More Solitudes, Lauchie Liza, and Rory and Anna, and two collections of short stories.

Domenic Cusmano is a Montreal publisher, writer and communications consultant. He is the co-founder and publisher of Accenti Magazine, an English-language national quarterly whose mission is to give expression to Canada's Italian heritage. He is also the founder of Longbridge Books, a publishing house launched in 2007 whose mandate is to promote fiction and non-fiction that convey Canada's multicultural character.
www.accenti.ca
http://longbridgebooks.com

Carlinda D'Alimonte is an author and English teacher. She has published two books of poetry: Now that We Know Who We Are (2004, Black Moss Press) and Other Living Things (2009, Black Moss Press). She holds both Canadian and Italian citizenship and currently lives in Tecumseh, Ontario.

Marisa De Franceschi was born in Muris (Udine) Italy. She came to Canada in 1948. Her fiction has been published in a number of anthologies and she has twice been the recipient of the Okanagan Short Story Award. Surface Tension was her first novel. She edited Pillars of Lace and The Many Faces of Woman. Family Matters, a short story collection, came out in 2001. Random Thoughts, a collection of prose poetry, was published in 2010.

Dr. Giulia De Gasperi, from Treviso, fell in love with Canada in 1993 as an exchange student to PEI. She now lives in Scotland, making frequent visits to Canada, the USA and Italy. She holds a Post-doc in Ethnology at Edinburgh University. Her research involves Italians in the Maritimes and collecting oral narratives about farming life in the Trevigian Province. Her writing is also inspired by these places and people.
www.apanera.com

Agata De Santis is a Montreal-based writer and filmmaker. She is the founding president of the production company, Redhead Productions, and has her own blog at www.italocanadese.com. In 2010, Agata completed her second documentary film, Mal'occhio [The Evil Eye], which looks at the evil eye superstition in the Italian-Canadian community. Her writing has been published in various newspapers and magazines.
www.redheadproductions.com

Delia De Santis' short stories have appeared in literary magazines in Canada, United States, England, and Italy, and in several anthologies. She is co-editor of the anthologies Sweet Lemons (Legas, 2004), Writing Beyond History (Cusmano, 2006), Strange Peregrinations (Frank Iacobucci Centre for Italian Canadian Studies, 2007), and Sweet Lemons 2 (Legas, 2010). She is the author of the collection Fast Forward and Other Stories (Longbridge Books, 2008).

Claudia Del Balso has published eight short stories; one of them received the Award of Excellence in the Anthology Summer Tapestry (2008). She has interviewed four Canadian authors, and her latest one is scheduled for May 2011. She has edited two books for Garev Publishing International. Claudia is finishing her own anthology. She currently blogs about writing and publishing at www.claudiadelbalso.blogspot.com.

Alberto Mario DeLogu, born in Sardinia, lives in Montréal. Agronomist and economist by training, he works as an international food broker. He is a founding member of La Botte e il Cilindro Theatre Company. Lyrical Myrical published his poetry collections: La biodiversità delle parole (2003) and Cetre appese (2004). Awarded Gramsci Prize for S'iskèras; Transamanti. Sardignolo, his first non-poetry work, was published by Angelica Editore (2010).

Pier Giorgio Di Cicco has authored 17 collections of poetry since 1976 and was a seminal figure in Canadian Multiculturalism with the first anthology of Italian-Canadian writers and through his collaborative work with the Multiculturalism Directorate, the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council. In 2004 he was the Emilio Goggio Visiting Professor in Italian Studies at the University of Toronto and was appointed by the City of Toronto as its second Poet Laureate.

Caroline Morgan Di Giovanni B.A., M.A. grew up in suburban Philadelphia, married Alberto Di Giovanni and returned to Toronto. Editor, Italian Canadian Voices 1946-1983; and Italian Canadian Voices 1946-2004 (Mosaic Press); Editor, Scuola e Cultura newsletters, 2004-present; Writer, Looking at Renaissance Paintings and Other Poems (Quattro Books, 2008); member, Editorial board, Association of Italian Canadian Writers, 2010-present.
www.centroscuola.ca

Bruna immigrated to Canada in 1964. Her poetry has received awards and been published in various magazines and anthologies in both Italian and English. Her short stories appeared in Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme and Wordscape. She has painted on porcelain, watercolours, and acrylic. Her work has been exhibited in several art shows. Sentieri D'Italia was published in Italian by Lyricalmyrical. She is working on My Mother, My Legacy.

Canadian poet, novelist and teacher, Mary di Michele has one of the most distinctive voices in North American writing. She was born in Lanciano, Italy in 1949 and immigrated to Canada with her family in 1955. Di Michele is the author of 10 books, including the poetry collection Stranger in You and the novel Tenor of Love. Her latest book is The Flower of Youth: Pier Paolo Pasolini Poems (ECW Press, 2011). She teaches at Concordia University in the creative writing program.

Sonia Di Placido is a graduate of the Ryerson Theatre School, Acting (1996). She has performed and worked as an actor, theatre director, drama coach, dramaturge and playwright in the UK and in Italy (96/97). Sonia has experience in the publishing and performing arts industries as a performing artist, a publicity and marketing specialist and as an arts administrator/fundraiser. Her first chapbook of poetry was Vulva Magic and her second, Forest Primitive.

Anthony D'Addese, a retired high school teacher from Montreal, was born in Gesualdo, Avellino, where he received his first Teaching Diploma. He then moved to Canada where he taught for the English Catholic School Board of Montreal from 1959 to 1991. He published Proverbs, Sayings, Clichés, a Multilingual Anthology in English, French, Italian, Spanish and Latin, the first book of its kind to be published in Canada.

The Island of the Nightingales won the 2000 Writers Guild of Alberta Award for Short Fiction. Caterina's novel, The Lion's Mouth, has received much critical and academic attention and was published in French last year. She has also published a book of novellas, Whiter Shade of Pale/ Becoming Emma, and many short stories and essays in various magazines and anthologies. Her play, Terra Straniera, was produced professionally in Edmonton and published by Guernica.

Nino Famà (Barcellona P.G.) published the novel La stanza segreta (Salvatore Sciascia Editore, 2004), translated in English by Leonard Sbrocchi & Douglas Campbell (LEGAS, 2008). A collection of short stories, Don Gaudenzio e altre storie appeared in 1996. He is the author of two books on literary criticism and numerous research articles which have appeared in specialized journals in various countries. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Waterloo.

Eufemia Fantetti, born in Toronto, is now a Vancouver-based playwright and performer. She studied theatre and creative writing in Canada and the United States. Eufemia has worked as a journalist for L'Eco d'Italia, BC's Italian-language newspaper. Her work has been published in several anthologies and her produced plays include The Last Moon, The Waiting Room, It's All The Rage, An Italian Tale and Couples, Singles & Other Freaks of Nature.

Venera Fazio was born in Bafia, Sicily, and now lives in Bright's Grove, ON. Altogether she has co-edited five anthologies relating to Italian/Italian immigrant culture, including the recent Sweet Lemons 2: International Writings with a Sicilian Accent (Legas, 2010). Her poetry and prose have been published in literary magazines in Canada, Italy and the United States. She has co-edited an issue of Descant, dedicated to the island of Sicily.

Sylvia Fiorita-Smith is a member of the AICW and the West Island Writers' Group. She contributed to Winter Magic and Winter Memories, and was published in Curaggia: Writings by Women of Italian Descent. She has been a guest reader at local coffeehouses and at the Salotto Letterario at Toronto's Columbus Centre. She attended McGill and Concordia universities. Her interests lie in journaling as a form of self-expression and therapy.

Née à La Sarre, Abitibi, en l943, Célyne Fortin a co-animé de 1971 à 1991, avec René Bonenfant, les Éditions du Noroît. Aux mêmes éditions, elle a publié des recueils de poésie et des livres d'artiste, des contes et récits, et d'autres livres d'artistes chez Bonfort et Île est un mot magique, 2000. Elle a publié dans des revues au Québec, USA, France, et Allemagne. Depuis 2003, elle dirige la collection Le Dire aux Éditions des Heures bleues.

Florence-born Anna Foschi Ciampolini lives in Vancouver. She is a bilingual writer, journalist, and translator. Her short stories have been anthologized in Italy, Canada, Costa Rica and the U.S. She is a co-founder and two-time President of the Association of Italian Canadian Writers and co-founded the Bressani Literary Prize. As a cultural activist, she organises events, readings and conferences.

Emilio Francescucci, né à Guardiagrele,  dans les montagnes des Abruzzes (Italie), arrivé au Québec en 1957. Il a fondé avec des amis, en septembre 2000, le Carrefour de Poésie de Lanaudière. Il en a assumé la présidence jusqu'en novembre 2004. En 2002 il publie son premier recueil de poésie : Échos du silence,  Éditions Carrefour de poésie de Lanaudière et remporte le 1er prix de Création littéraire (Prix  Desjardins). 

Giuliana Gardellini was born and lives in Bologna. She has worked as a teacher, translator, interpreter, and as assistant at University of Bologna in English and North-American Literatures. Her publications include The Silent Shadows of Language, The Poetry of Alice Thompson Meynell, and a number of essays in the field of English and Canadian literature.

Loretta Gatto-White is a Nova Scotia columnist, food writer and essayist. Her work has appeared in Canadian newspapers, magazines, anthologies and online in her food journal at
www.saveurfaire.net

Frank Giorno, born in Montalto Uffugo, Calabria in 1955 and arrived in Canada in 1959, lives in Toronto. He has worked as a journalist, environmental activist and government communications & media relations specialist. His poetry books, Elvis in America (2006) and Arrivederci! Plastic-Covered Couch (2008), were published by LyricalMyrical Press. Frank's writing has been featured in Accenti Magazine, the Ontario Poetry Society's Verse Afire Magazine and Garden Variety.

Bianca is the author of Bridge in the Rain, a collection of stories set in Toronto’s High Park; Memoirs of a Praying Mantis, a collection of poetry; and Summer of the Dancing Bear, a novel slated for 2012. Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies such as Canadian Woman Studies and Canadian Voices. The recipient of the Matthew Ahern Memorial Award in Literature, she holds a Master’s in English and has taught at Humber College and Ryerson University.

Elena Lamberti teaches at the University of Bologna in the Department of Foreign and Modern Languages and Literatures. She has written extensively on the theme of War and Memories and on the figure of Marshall McLuhan. She is co-editor of Writing Our Way Home (2012).

D.C. Iannuzzi is a Montreal writer. In both his first novel, City of Sinners, and its sequel, Penance Is for the Weak, politics and organized crime collide to weave tales of anger, greed and retribution. Employing a writing style that pays homage to the film noir genre, the raw emotions of the narrative are brought to the fore through characters, setting and tone. When not contemplating the darkness that lurks in men's souls, D.C. earns his living as a portfolio manager.

Maria Luisa Ierfino, author of High Spirits, is a freelance writer. Her MA thesis focused on the poetry of Irving Layton. Published when her daughter was born, the poet praised her for producing two masterpieces in the same year. Maria also holds an Executive MBA and has just completed an historical novel and a collection of short stories. She is the proud mother of Aviva, her Muse, and devoted wife to architect Nick Adornato.

Darlene Madott is a Toronto-born lawyer and writer. Her call to the Ontario Bar in 1985 coincided with the publication of Bottled Roses (Oberon). Her short stories have appeared in anthologies as well as literary periodicals across Canada. Her most recent book is Making Olives and Other Family Matters (2008). She has also published the collection of short stories Joy, Joy, Why Do I Sing?, the film-script Mazilli's Shoes, and the novel Song and Silence.

Ilona Martonfi is a poet, editor, creative writing teacher, founder/producer/host of The Yellow Door and Visual Arts Centre Poetry and Prose Readings, and co-founder/producer/host of the annual Lovers & Others. Blue Poppy, a first book of poems, was published with Coracle Press in 2009. She also published the Coracle chapbook, Visiting the Ridge, a finalist in the 2007 Quebec Writing Competition, and was published in CBC Story Anthology III, In Other Words: New English Writing from Quebec (Véhicule Press, 2008).

Albino Matano is a performance poet. He writes poetry in Italian and English.

Connie Guzzo McParland is a small business operator by day and a creative writer the rest of the time. She holds a Master's degree in creative writing from Concordia University in Montreal. In 2005, an excerpt from her novel Girotondo, Verso Halifax, won second prize at the ninth edition of the Premio Letterario Cosseria, Italy, and consequently published in Un Crocevia… (2005). Another excerpt, Deceptions and Floating Devices, was published in Writing Beyond History (2006).

Carmelo Militano is a Winnipeg poet and writer. He was awarded the F. G. Bressani award for poetry in 2004. He worked as a freelance journalist for CBC Radio One before publishing three poetry chapbooks with Olive Press: Adriane's Thread (2004), The Minotaur's Keys (2006), Weather Reports (2011) and the poetry collection Feast Days (2010). His prose work, The Fate of Olives, was shortlisted for two awards: The Eileen McTavis Award and the F. G. Bressani award for non-fiction.

Carmelo Militano is a writer and poet. Before publishing his first book, he worked as a freelance broadcaster/journalist for CBC Radio One in Winnipeg. The Fate of Olives was short-listed for two literary prizes: Eileen McTavis First Book Award in 2007, and the 2008 Bressani Non-fiction Award. He won the Bressani Award in 2004 for Ariadne's Thread, his first collection, and has since published a chapbook, The Minotaur's Keys (2005). Weather Reports is his latest chapbook.

Born in Jelsi, Campobasso, Michael came to Canada at the age of five. A graduate of the UBC Creative Writing Masters Program, he is a transplanted (originally from Montreal) Toronto novelist, short story writer, poet and playwright. Publications include two novels and two short story collections. His short prose has appeared in dozens of journals and anthologies in Canada, the U.S. and Great Britain. He has won numerous awards.

Luigi Monteferrante's work includes Stiletto Heels & A Pork Pie Hat, a collection of poetry, the novel At the Hearth of the Devil's Lair, and the album Music for galleries & museums. Discography: www.cdbaby.com/Artist/GangofTolstoy. Originally from Montreal, he lives in Italy.

Linda Morra is an Associate Professor who teaches Canadian and American literature at Bishop's University. Her publications include Corresponding Influence: Selected Letters of Emily Carr and Ira Dilworth (UTP 2006) and Troubling Tricksters: Revisioning Critical Conversations (WLUP 2010).

Margherita Morsella was born in Duronia (antica Civitavecchia) and came to Canada when she was nine. She first obtained a Bachelor's Degree in History and Political Science and then a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Law. Member of the Quebec Bar since 1987, she has been practicing civil and family law for over twenty years. As an activist in the community, she was one of the founding members of several groups and associations. She writes poetry.

Born in Oregon, Peter Oliva was raised in Italy and in Canada. He has a Master's degree in English literature and has studied Japanese in Saitama, Japan. He has written for numerous periodicals, including Eyetalian, BRICK, Canadian Geographic and The Globe & Mail. He founded Poetry in Motion, Wordfest and Pages on Kensington. Selected publications: Drowning in Darkness and The City of Yes. Winner of the Writer's Trust of Canada Award and The Bressani Prize.

Oriana Palusci is professor of English and North-American Studies at Naples’ University ‘L’Orientale’. She has published essays on Canadian literature, culture and language. She has recently edited Postcolonial Studies: Changing Perceptions (2007), English, but not Quite. Locating Linguistic Diversity (2010), Traduttrici: questioni di gender nelle letterature in lingua inglese (2010) and Traduttrici: Female Voices across Languages (2011). She is president of the Italian Association for Canadian Studies.

Giornalista vicentina trasferitasi in Canada negli anni Ottanta. Dopo tre decenni di impegno nel settore dell'informazione in Italia, ha diretto (1983-1990) l'Eco d'Italia di Vancouver. Ha collaborato e tuttora collabora a giornali e riviste di emigrazione in Italia, Canada, Stati Uniti. Autrice di Missioni di ieri Frontiere di oggi (2007), Personaggi&Persone (2008), Presenze italiane in British Columbia (2009).

Rene Pappone is a retired journalist and federal public servant. He was a staff correspondent at the Alberta Legislature and a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. As a public servant, he was a director of information and a planning officer. He is the author of three books: The Rogue Files (2011); Beyond Expectations: Memoirs and Stories of a Timmins Boy (2007); and The Hai Hong: Profit, Tears and Joy (1982). He resides in Gatineau, Quebec.

Gianna was born in Ceprano, Frosinone, Italia and immigrated to Canada in 1960. Gianna's poetry has been widely anthologized, and her poems have appeared in many journals and magazines. Her poems have been heard on CBC, CIUT, CHIN Radio, TV Ontario, Imprint, CFMT TV and Telelatino. Gianna's poetry has been adapted for the stage at Canada Stage Berkley Street Theater in Toronto in 2001. She was runner-up to the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award in 1995.

Cristina Perissinotto is Professor of Italian & Medieval Studies at Ottawa University, where she directs the Italian Language Program. Cristina received a BA in Philosophy at Venice University, an MA in Medieval History, and a PhD in Italian literature from Illinois University. She has a weekly column in Corriere Canadese. Her poems have appeared in many journals, including Poetry East and The Antigonish Review. Recent publications: Taprobana Tea (Campanotto) and Exhale, Exhale (Guernica).

Maria Pia Marchelletta (Lady Elisabeth Viscount) studied both Italian and French literature and grammar at the University of Toronto. She has taught French and Italian at both the elementary and secondary levels. Elisabeth's passions include reading and writing English, Italian and French poetry, short stories and essays. She has published a chapbook, Nocturnal Laments, with Beret Days Press under her pen name Lady Elisabeth Viscount.

Anthony M. Pignataro celebrated the publication of his first book in October, 2011. From Under A Linden Tree is a collection of poems, reflections, childhood stories and memories inspired by walks in the garden through the four seasons. Anthony was born in Italy and moved to Toronto at age three. He recently retired from a 32-year career in teaching and continues his work as a Deacon, Spiritual Director, speaker and musician. Many of his poems have been published, most notably Italian Canadian Voices and Roman Candles.
www.sarumhouse.com

Joseph Pivato was born in Italy and grew up in Toronto. He teaches literature, theory and cultural studies at Athabasca University in Edmonton. His research interests are Italian-Canadian writing and literary theory. In 1986 he was one of the founding members of the Association of Italian-Canadian Writers during a conference in Vancouver, B.C. In addition to many articles in international journals, Pivato has published several seminal books. www.athabascau.ca/cll/staff/pivato.htm

Nino Ricci’s first novel was the internationally acclaimed Lives of the Saints. It spent 75 weeks on the Globe and Mail‘s bestseller list and was the winner of the F.G. Bressani Prize, the Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Published in 17 countries, Lives was the first volume of a trilogy that continued with In a Glass House and Where She Has Gone. Ricci’s latest novel is the award-winning bestseller The Origin of Species. www.ninoricci.com

Giovanna Riccio is a Toronto poet whose work has appeared in various newspapers, magazines, journals and anthologies. Her long poem, Vittorio, was published by Lyricalmyrical Press in June 2010. Her book of poems, Strong Bread, will be published by Quattro Books in the spring of 2011. Giovanna is co-organizer of The (Not So) Nice Italian Girls and Friends Reading Series.

Erno Rossi is a freelance writer/photographer, world traveller, outdoor columnist, best-selling author and former teacher of history, sociology and disaster survival. Member of the Canadian Authors Association and The Writers Union of Canada, he received a Juno nomination in 2007 for artwork on a CD called Crisis. Erno is working on his memoir about coming of age in Canada in a family of mixed heritage and his eventual success as a best-selling author.

Born in Fresno, California, Kenneth Scambray received his Ph.D. in American Literature at the University of California, Riverside. Since 1981, he has taught in the Department of English at the University of La Verne, in Southern California. His published works include The North American Italian Renaissance: Italian Writing in America and Canada and Queen Calafia's Paradise: California and the Italian American Novel. His poetry and fiction have appeared in several publications.

Maria Cristina Seccia is a PhD student in Translation Studies at Bangor University (Wales). Her PhD project consists of the translation into Italian of The Lion's Mouth (1984) by Caterina Edwards and a theoretical commentary. It aims to show how it is important for the translator to preserve the hybridity of such a source text in which the author's Italian origins are deeply reflected both from a cultural and linguistic point of view.

Gina Valle's work addresses issues of multiculturalism. Her company, Diversity Matters, brings a multidimensional approach to diversity. Gina is an educator, researcher, the director and producer of the documentary The Last Rite, the editor of Our Grandmothers Ourselves, and curator of the photo exhibit Legacies, which travelled to Asia and Europe. Her doctoral work brought her into French and English inner-city schools in Montreal.
www.ginavalle.com

A. Colin Wright was born and raised in Chelmsford, Essex, England. In 1961 he lived for six months in Sassari, Sardinia, followed the next year by a longer period in Reggio Calabria. He speaks six languages reasonably fluently (including Italian), and can stumble along in two more. In 1964, he was appointed professor of Russian at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He has written three novels: The Lost Girl, Brideshead Revisited and Sardinian Silver.

Osvaldo G. Zappa was born in Italy and educated at the Istituto Tecnico for Geometri in Sulmona, Aquila. He immigrated to Canada in 1956. He worked at different jobs until 1962 when he enrolled in the Engineering Faculty at UBC. Left school to work in the forest industry until his retirement in the year 2000. In 2010 he published a memoir titled Giovanni's Journey.

Carmen Laurenza Ziolkowski has published four books of poetry and a novel. Her poetry has been extensively published in Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia. Her plays, written in Italian, were performed in Italy and in Sarnia. A former nurse, mid-wife, and journalist, Carmen lives in Sarnia, ON, with her husband Bruno. They have two sons and three grandchildren.

Jim Zucchero grew up in Toronto. He now lives in London, Ontario, where he works as an academic counsellor and instructor at King's University College, UWO. He earned a PhD in English at UWO and teaches writing and Canadian Studies. He has published creative non-fiction and essays on Italian-Canadian writers and Canada's National War Memorial. In 2010 he co-edited Reflections on Culture (with Licia Canton and Venera Fazio).

Ernesto Livorni teaches Italian and Comparative Literature at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. His publications include Avanguardia e tradizione: Ezra Pound e Giuseppe Ungaretti (1998), T. S. Eliot, Montale e la modernità dantesca (forthcoming) and the translation of Ted Hughes, Cave-Birds: Un dramma alchemico della caverna (2001). A volume of new and collected poems, Onora il Padre e la Madre, is forthcoming.

Jessica Kluthe is an author & writing instructor from Edmonton, AB. She completed an MFA in Writing at the University of Victoria in April 2011. Since then, her first book title Rosina: A Midwife, about a Calabrian midwife, has been selected for publication by Brindle & Glass (Spring 2013). Some of her stories have appeared in Canadian literary journals. You can reach her at jessica.kluthe@gmail.com.

Paola Melchiori's background is in philosophy, anthropology and psychoanalysis. Author of published articles and two books, videos, and documentaries, she works through oral history on identity of women and knowledge creation. As founder of The Free Women University and of the International Feminist University Network, she has built an international think-tank of women critical thinkers committed to making visible transcultural feminist paradigms of knowledge.

Terri Favro has been published in Accenti, Prism, Geist, and Riddle Fence, among other journals, as well as in AICW Remembers and TOK: Writing the New Toronto Vol 6. A two-time finalist in the Accenti Writing Contest, she has been shortlisted three times for the CBC Literary Awards and was named an Emerging Voice by the Diaspora Dialogues program. Her novella, The Proxy Bride, was co-winner of the 2011 Ken Klonsky contest and will be published by Quattro Books.

Rosanna Lo Presti is the author of the novel L’Ora del Tramonto (2010), published in Messina (Sicily), Italy, by Casa Editrice Kimerik. Giardinu D’amuri (2011), a collection of prose and poetry in Sicilian, was published by Toronto-based Joie de Plume Books.