Gianna was born in Ceprano, Frosinone, Italia. Emigrated to Canada in l960 as a child. Received a B.A. in English Literature and B.Ed. from York University.

Gianna's poetry has been widely anthologized, her poems have appeared in many journals and magazines. Her poems have been heard on CBC, C.I.U.T., CHIN radio as well as T.V. Ontario, Imprint, CFMT TV and Telelatino. Gianna's poetry has been adapted for the stage at Canada Stage Berkley Street Theater in Toronto in 200l. She was runner -up to the Milton Acorn People's poetry award in 1995.

She has written: Italian Women and Other Tragedies (Guernica, 1997), Daughters for Sale (Guernica, 1997), Ciao Baby (Guernica 1999), Invisible Woman (Lyricalmyrical, 2003), and What My Arms Can Carry, (Guernica, 2004).

Her work has appeared in: The Anthology of Italian Canadian Writers (Guernica), Curragia (Women's Press), Pillars of Lace (Guernica), Dagoes Talk (Guernica), L'Altra Storia (Monteleone, Italy, l999), Contemporary Poets, 7th Ed. (St. James Press, 2000), Inside Poetry (Harcourt Press, 2002). She is working on a novel entitled The Sicilian's Bride.

Joseph Pivato was born in Italy and grew up in Toronto (Canada).
His research interests are Italian-Canadian writing and literary theory.
In 1985 his book, Contrasts: Comparative Essays on Italian-Canadian Writing was a seminal work which established the academic recognition of ethnic minority writing in Canada. But he did not realize this at the time.

In 1978 his poems were included in Roman Candles edited by Pier Giorgio Di Cicco. 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 these books: Echo: Essays on Other Literatures (1994), F.G. Paci: Essays on His Works (2003), part of the Guernica Editions writers series along with, Caterina Edwards: Essays on Her Works (2000).

Pivato edited The Anthology of Italian-Canadian Writing (1998),
and Literatures of Lesser Diffusion (1990).

His new book, Mary di Michele: Essays on Her Works, is to appear in 2007.
His short story, “My Father’s Escapes,” was included in the grade 12 English text, Passages 12 (2002).

He earned a BA in English and French from York University in Toronto, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He teaches literature, theory and cultural studies at Athabasca University in Edmonton.

Pivato has been a keynote speaker at Macquarie University and the University of Wollongong in Australia, at the University of Udine and the University of Pisa in Italy, at the University of Calgary and at California State University, Long Beach. See his website http://www.athabascau.ca/cll/staff/pivato.htm

Garry Anthony Priam nasce a Luton, Bedfordshire Inghilterra il 24 aprile 1965 da Willianna Wilson e Kidwin Sudley Priam originari dei Caraibi rispettativamente da Santa Lucia e Santo Vincenzo. Si conobbero a Londra e la famiglia Priam emigra in Canada assieme la sorella Marthalina, per cercare una vita migliore.

Garry iniziò a scuola all'eta di cinque anni. Era un'atleta notevole e vinse molti premi. Infatti praticò atletica, il calcio, l'hockey su ghiaccio, basket, ecc… È stato votato spesso come miglior giocatore in ogni sport che ha praticato.

Si è laureato in informatica coltivando il sogno di giocare come professionistà. Iniziò a lavorare nel settore informatico prima di andare a Londra per giocare a basket.

Tornò in Canada per il basket e per amore. Poi venne l'occassione per lui di andare in Italia per seguire la sua ragazza che è un'atleta professionistà.

Ha abitato in diverse in città in Italia come: Samarate (Busto Arsizio), Reggio Emilia, Bergamo, Forlì, Chieri (Torino) e Modena.

Durante il suo soggiorno in Italia, negli ultimi nove anni, Garry ha imparato l'Italiano. Ha scoperto quindi le sfumature della cultura Italiana, ambientandosi nella vita quotidiana del paese, vivendola come residente e non come turista. Al suo arrivo in Italia, Garry conosceva soltanto tre parole della lingua piú sensuale ed appassionata del mondo.

Garry è sempre piaciuto scrivere e leggere nel tempo libero come vedrete in "a taste of passion".

Dopo tanti anni in Italia peró, ha trovato il coraggio e l'ispirazione per scrivere e pubblicarle in Italiano.

Ora lui vive vicino a Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. Fa l'attore televisivo e lavora nel settore di informatica come consulente. Gli piace giocare ancora a basket per tenersi in forma e fa delle immersione.

Erno Rossi is a freelance writer-photographer, world traveler, outdoor columnist, best-selling author and former teacher of history, sociology and disaster survival. He is a 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 by a band called Alexisonfire. Erno is now 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. Visit him at his website www.whitedeath.com or see a 7 minute video from his DVD. Click on You Tube and type in Blizzard of '77 Slideshow.

Mel Sarnese is a Canadian poet living in Toronto.She is of Italian parents - born in the Molise region of Italy.Mel has been published in Canadian poetry anthologies, literary journals and has submitted works to contests receiving 'runner-up' recognition. Mel enjoys writing poetry, short stories, essays and is now working on her first novel with the hope of being awarded a place at The Humber School for Writers Summer Workshop.

Mel is a member of The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto,Association of Canadian Italian Writers, Canadian Authors Association, Toronto, Canadian Federation of Poets, Canadian Poetry Association, Canadian League of Poets, Ontario Poetry Society, and the Writers and Editors Association. Mel has enjoyed performing her poetry in Toronto, San Francisco and New York City. She has been broadcast on CBC Radio and TVO. Mel is the editor of Canadian Federation of Poets "'Poetry of Relationships" anthology.

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 Dept. of English at the University of La Verne, located in Southern California. His published works include A Varied Harvest: The Life and Works of Henry Blake Fuller (Univ. Pittsburgh Press, 1987), The North American Italian Renaissance: Italian Writing in America and Canada (Guernica Editions, 2000), Surface Roots: Stories (Guernica Editions, 2004), and Queen Calafia's Paradise: California and the Italian American Novel (Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, 2007). Most recently his poetry and fiction have appeared in Rattle, Paterson Review, Sweet Lemons: Writings with a Sicilian Accent (Legas, 2004) and Writing Beyond History: An anthology of Prose and Poetry (Cusmano, 2006). Since 1978, Prof. Scambray has been the book and film critic for L'Italo-Americano (Los Angeles).

In her research and her writing, Gina Valle (www.ginavalle.com) examines multicultural perspectives on feminism, the family and aging. In her work and training programs, Gina also discusses the importance of maintaining our first language and ethnic identity in multicultural Canada and how to live with an open mind and a compassionate heart in our increasingly diverse world. She is an experienced practitioner in workplace basic education, second language learning, teacher education and curriculum development.

Her PhD is in Multicultural Studies and Teacher Education. Gina is editor of Our Grandmothers Ourselves: Reflections of Canadian Women (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2004) that showcases the narratives of 18 first-generation Canadian women as they write about the significant role their immigrant grandmothers have had in shaping their identities.

Loretta (Gatto) White was born and raised in Toronto, the city to which her paternal grandparents emigrated from Calabria. After graduating from the University of Western Ontario in Visual Arts, then obtaining a Bachelor of Education from the University of Toronto, the author taught Art, English and Special Education at the secondary school level in Toronto for eighteen years. She then moved to Chester, a small village on Nova Scotia’s South Shore, where she established a business making organic pizzas, handmade pastas and other Italian dishes. She now has a food column, Food for Thought, published in Chester’s community newspaper for which she is also a feature food and drink writer. Loretta has reviewed Carol Off’s expose Bitter Chocolate for on-line publication in Rabble’s Book Lounge, her work, Go Gentle into that Good Night was short-listed by the Ottawa Valley Writer’s Guild for the 2007 Larry Turner award for non-fiction, and her essay, Where the Lemon Trees Bloom, will appear in the anthology More Sweet Lemons, edited by Delia De Santis and Venera Fazio. She is currently working on a cookbook based-on her column and in her spare time is a volunteer broadcaster for Voice Print Canada, a national broadcast reading service for the print challenged.

A. Colin Wright was born and raised in Chelmsford, Essex, England. After serving as a linguist in the British Royal Air Force, Wright attended Cambridge University, where he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees. 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 remained at Queen’s until his retirement in 1999 and still resides there today. Dr. Wright is married and has two grown sons.

Based on his own time on Sardinia, Wright’s recent captivating and oftentimes hilarious novel Sardinian Silver follows the exploits of a young man trying to find love while assimilating to an archaically orthodox society. Sardinia in the 1960s was still very culturally undeveloped: the residents viewed mainland Italians and continentals (the British counted among them) as immoral and contaminated by modern society. In the tradition of Brideshead Revisited and The Lost Girl, Sardinian Silver is a charming and witty novel of growth, loss and realization.

See also www.sardiniansilver.com and www.acolinwright.ca. Other fiction, including a story The Trouble with Saints also set in Italy, may be found at www.authorsden.com/acolinwright.

Carmen Laurenza Ziolkowski was born in Italy. She studied journalism at Wayne State University, Detroit. Her prose, poetry, and dramas have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies in Italy, Canada, Unites States, England, and Australia. She is the author of two poetry books, ROSES BLOOM at DUSK (Vesta Publications, 1976), WORLD OF DREAMS, (River City Press, 1995), and the novel The House of Four Winds (River City Press, 1987). She is a member of the Writers' Union of Canada, the Association of Italian Canadian Writers, Canadian Poetry Association, and Writers In Transition (W.I.T.) of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. Her motto is to revere every living thing and enjoy life.

Jim Zucchero lives in London, Ontario and works as an academic counsellor at King's College, The University of Western Ontario. He is completing his PhD in the Department of English at UWO where his thesis will examine literature by and about Italian immigrants to Canada with a particular interest in postcolonial perspectives. Jim is interested in: multiculturalism in Canada, personal and collective notions of identity, ethnicity, theories of hybridity, history and memory.

He has published essays on the Canadian National War Memorial, Nino Ricci's trilogy of novels, and Mario Duliani's chronicle of the internment of Italian-Canadians during the Second World War. His current research examines the relationship between home, identity, and narrative in writing by Italian-Canadians (Maria Ardizzi, Penny Petrone and Nino Ricci).

When he is not thinking about these things, Jim enjoys being Holly's sous chef, listening to Isabel play Vivaldi on her violin, cheering Charlie on as a hockey goalie, and walking Jesse the dog.

Recent publications: "The Canadian National War Memorial: Metaphor for the Birth of the Nation," Mnemographia Canadensis: Essays on Memory, Community and Environment in Canada (Canadian Poetry Press, 1999). "What's Immigration Got To Do With It? Postcolonialism and Shifting Notions of Exile in Nino Ricci's Italian-Canadians," Is Canada Postcolonial? - Unsettling Canadian Literature (Wilfrid Laurier U. Press, 2003). "What We Suffer Most is Memory Itself," ACCENTi - the Canadian Magazine with an Italian Accent (May-June 2003).