The (Not So) Nice Italian Girls celebrate Poetry Month

Celebrate Poetry Month with 

The (Not So) Nice Italian Girls

at the Spadina Road Branch,

Toronto Public Library

10 Spadina Rd. (north of Bloor)

Thursday April 15, 2010

7.00pm

Desi Di Nardo has had many publications in international journals and anthologies including The Literary Review of Canada, The Globe and Mail, Descant, and The National Post. Her work has been performed at the National Arts Centre, featured on Toronto's transit system, displayed in the Official Residences of Canada, and printed on Starbucks cups. Desi has worked as a literacy facilitator at the June Callwood Centre, English professor at George Brown College, and currently is the writer-in-residence at St. Joseph's College. She is the author of The Plural of Some Things published by Guernica Editions. Poems from her book have been translated and reviewed in La Rivista di Studi Italiani.

Gianna Patriarca, a graduate of York University was born in the region of Lazio, Italy and came to Canada as a child. Gianna has published six books of poetry and one children’s book. Her first collection Italian Women and Other Tragedies was runner-up to the Milton Acorn People’s Poetry Award and in 2009 was translated into Italian and launched at the university of Bologna and Naples. My Etruscan Face was short listed for the Bressani Literary Award in 2009. Her work has been extensively anthologized and has been adapted for Canada Stage theater and for CBC radio drama. Her work has been featured in numerous documentaries including Enigmatico, Pier 21, The Italian/Canadians and Three Women which will have its release on OMNI in 2010. Gianna’s books appear on the course list of Canadian, American and Italian universities. She is currently working on a new collection of poems entitled Too Much Love and continues to work on her novel The Sicilian’s Bride. She lives in Toronto.

Giovanna Riccio was born in Calabria, Italy and grew up in Toronto where she studied philosophy at the University of Toronto. Her poems have appeared in journals, magazines and newspapers, including the Eyetalian, Poetry Canada Review, CV2, Tickleace, and Italian-Canadiana. Giovanna completed her first manuscript, Strong Bread, earlier this year and is in the process of getting it published. Her dramatic monologue, Vittorio, will be published by Lyricalmyrical Press in the spring. She has recently retired from teaching and is working on a new book of poetry.

And as emcee ...
Michelle Alfano is a Toronto writer and a Co-Editor with Descant. Her short story “Opera”, on which her novella Made Up Of Arias (Blaurock Press, 2008) is 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, and has also appeared in the U.S. She will be featured in a forthcoming documentary on the passengers, and the children of the passengers, of the Saturnia, an immigrant ship which transported thousands of Italian-born immigrants to Canada in the 1950s and 60s and which will be featured on OMNI-TV.