Join us as we celebrate Italian Heritage Month at the Toronto Public Library, Yorkville Branch, on June 21st, 2014! Authors include:
Sonia Di Placido
Michelle Alfano
Gianna Patriarca
Cristina Rizzuto
Terri Favro
Lillian Conti 
Darlene Madott

June is Italian Heritage Month. In collaboration with the National Congress of Italian Canadians and Accenti Magazine, the Association of Italian Canadian Writers is co-ordinating a series of events under the Books and Biscotti Literary Series. Events will be held across Canada. Refreshments will be served. We hope to see you there!

Sonia Di Placido is a writer, performer, and artist currently completing the Creative Writing, Optional Residency MFA Program, with the University of British Columbia. She is also a graduate of the Ryerson University Theatre School and holds an honours degree in Humanities from York University. She has worked as a Supernumerary with the Canadian Opera Company and is a member of the Association of Italian Canadian Writers. Sonia has published profile pieces, creative non­fiction, and poems in literary journals and anthologies. Exaltation in Cadmium Red is her first book.

Michelle Alfano is Founder of the (Not So) Nice Italian Girls & Friends Reading Series and an Associate Editor-in-Chief with Descant. Her novella Made Up of Arias (Blaurock Press) won the 2010 Bressani Prize for Short Fiction. Her short story “Opera”, on which her novella Made Up of Arias is based, was a finalist for a Journey Prize anthology. She was recently featured in the documentary Saturnia featured on OMNI-TV and at the Moving Images Film Festival. She is currently at work on a new novel entitled Her Enchanted Objects and a piece of creative non-fiction entitled The Unfinished Dollhouse.

Gianna Patriarca is the author of numerous books. Her work has been extensively anthologized in Canadian, American and Italian publications, as well as adapted for the stage and for CBC Radio Drama. Besides the popular Italian Women and Other Tragedies, books include Daughters For Sale, Ciao Baby, What My Arms Can Carry, My Etruscan Face and Too Much Love. She won the Milton Acorn Award for Italian Women and Other Tragedies.

Cristina Rizzuto is the author of The Music Makers (Blaurock Press, 2012). She earned an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto, and a Certificate in Creative Publishing from Humber College. Her writing has appeared in magazines and journals, including Dragnet Magazine, Best Ultra Short Poems, a Canadian poetry anthology published by the Ontario Poetry Society, and on CBC Canada Writes. Cristina is a member of CWILA (Canadian Women in the Literary Arts), the AICW (Association of Italian-Canadian Writers), and serves on the Board of Directors for the La Rocca Memorial Society. She is the recipient of the La Rocca Bursary Award, the 2012 Mattia International Poetry Award, and the 2012 City of Vaughan RAVE Award in Literary Arts.

Terri Favro’s novella The Proxy Bride was the winner of the Ken Klonsky-Quattro Books Novella Award. Terri’s stories have appeared in Prism, Geist, Broken Pencil, More, and other publications, as well as in literary anthologies, including Beyond Barbed Wire from Guernica Editions and Conspicuous Accents from Longbridge Books. In 2013, Terri was shortlisted for the CBC Literary Prize in Creative Non-Fiction and in 2014, she was the winner of the Accenti Magazine Award. Terri is also the co-creator of the Bella comic book series published by Grey Borders. An excerpt from her novel-in-progress, Sputnik’s Daughter, will appear in the upcoming ‘Geek Girls’ edition of ROOM Magazine.

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. Lillian collaborated in Il Viaggio, a collection of poetry, published by Pragmata, and hosted Books and Biscotti, for heritage month 2012. She paints, plays the violin and sings in the Church choir. She reads her poems and short stories to high schools students, on Telelatino, Omni TV and Rogers.