A Night of Humour with the (Not So) Nice Italian Girls & Friends

Michelle Alfano is a co-organizer of the (Not So) Nice Italian Girls & Friends Reading Series and a Co-Editor with Descant. Her short story “Opera”, on which her novella Made Up Of Arias (Blaurock Press) 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 will be featured in a forthcoming documentary on the passengers, and the children of the passengers, of the Saturnia ship which will be featured on OMNI-TV. She is currently at work at a new novel entitled Vita’s Prospects.

Sandra Battaglini is a dynamic, high-energy comedic actor, stand-up comedienne, clown and cabaret performer. Her mix of song, opera, contemporary pop, originally choreographed dance and theatrical clown has distinguished her as an innovative artist on the Toronto scene.

Bruna Di Giuseppe-Bertoni immigrated with her family to Canada in 1964. Some of her poetry has received awards and been published in various magazines and anthology in both Italian and English. She has had short stories published in Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme and Wordscape, an anthology of mystery and suspense. Her work has been selected to be part of the new revised literary anthology, Italian Canadian Voice. Published by Mosaic Press 2006 As an artist, she has painted on porcelain. Currently Her most recent collection of poetry, Sentieri D'Italia, was published in Italian by Lyricalmyrical (Toronto, 2004). She is currently working on a novel, My Mother, My Legacy. In her profession as a Social worker she is involved within the Italian community with seniors, disabled and mental health patients.

Terri Favro’s writing springs from her identity as a first-generation Italian-Canadian who grew up consuming Catholic dogma, British fairytales, American game shows, Jell-O butterscotch pudding, her father’s grappa, her mother’s polenta, and the neighbours’ homemade vodka. Terri’s humour articles and fiction have been published in Prism, Riddle Fence, Geist, Accenti, Toro, www.facebook.com/l/427e6; Feathertale.com and More magazines, among others, and her work has been short listed three times for the CBC Literary Awards. She was recently selected as an emerging Toronto writer by Diaspora Dialogues and is currently working on a novel and collaborating on a series of online graphic stories.

Michael Mirolla's latest novel, a speculative fiction saga titled The Facility, is due out in late 2010. In a moment of temporary insanity, the Montreal-Toronto corridor writer, author of a half-dozen books of poetry and fiction, decided he needed his own publishing house and thus, along with another insanity plea partner, bought Guernica Editions. Their motto: "It's fun as long as the madness continues."

David Silverberg has been involved in Canada’s spoken word community since 2001. He founded Suburban Spoken Word in North York and then helped start Toronto Poetry Slam, where he currently serves as host and artistic director. He is part of the Toronto poetry troupe Last Call Poets (myspace.com/lastcallpoets), and his most recent book of poetry is Bags of Wires (LyricalMyrical). He has performed across Canada, including Calgary, Halifax, Vancouver, Ottawa, London and Montreal. He is the editor of Canada’s first spoken word anthology, Mic Check (Quattro Press). His favourite band, yet his most hated food, are Red Hot Chili Peppers.

And as emcee ...
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, was published by LyricalMyrical Press in the summer of 2010. She has recently retired from teaching and is working on a new book of poetry.