May Reading

Nancy Jo Cullen is the fourth recipient of the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for Emerging Gay Author.  She has published collections of poetry with Calgary’s Frontenac House Press. Her short story collection, Canary is the winner of the Metcalf-Rooke 2012 prize and was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.

Koom Kankesan is a writer with a background in English Literature and Film Studies. He has written short stories and small anecdotal pieces for various journals, and has published film and book reviews with newspapers such as the Montreal Gazette. The Panic Button was his first book. The Rajapaksa Stories is his new one. Visit koomkankesan.webs.com.

Elizabeth Ruth's first novel, Ten Good Seconds of Silence was a finalist for the Writer's Trust of Canada Fiction Prize, the Amazon.ca Best First Novel Award and the City of Toronto Book Award. Her second novel, Smoke, was chosen for the 2007 One Book One Community program. In April, 2013 Elizabeth Ruth published her third novel, Matadora, to critical acclaim. In addition to Matadora, Elizabeth will also publish a GoodReads novella this year, entitled, Love You To Death. Elizabeth Ruth teaches creative writing at UofT and mentors within the Humber School for Writers. Visit www.elizabethruth.com.

Ania Szado's new novel, Studio Saint-Ex, is a national bestseller in Canada and is forthcoming in the U.S., Russia, Italy and Poland. Her first novel, Beginning of Was, was regionally shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Best First Book. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, and an AOCA from Ontario College of Art. Ania currently mentors writers one-on-one. She is the 2013 Writer in Residence for Whistler, B.C., and will be teaching creative writing at University of Toronto in 2014. Visit her website: www.aniaszado.com.

With music by ...

Bocelli is an urban vocalist, DJ, and producer. His creative focus however is his unique form of sinjaying, a reggae infused blend of singing and rapping. Native to and living in Toronto, Bocelli is currently working on his first official EP that will feature a variety of urban genres from dance to hip-hop. Though not one to express lofty ideas in his music - preferring instead to stick to feel good, love, and even erotic lyrics - Bocelli is a philosophy professor outside the world of music, recently obtaining his Ph.D. from the University of Ottawa. As a doctor and an urban artist it perhaps comes as no surprise that Bocelli sometimes confuses himself as Clark Kent, turning into full superhero form only on the mic.

With emcees …

Michelle Alfano is a co-organizer of the (Not So) Nice Italian Girls & Friends Reading Series and a Co-Editor 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. Her fiction and non-fiction work has been widely published in major literary publications. She was recently featured in the documentary Saturnia featured on OMNI-TV and at the Moving Images Film Festival. She is currently at work at a new novel entitled Vita’s Prospects. She blogs at alitchick.blogspot.ca.

Terri Favro is a freelance writer and copywriter whose work has been published in magazines and anthologies, and broadcast on CBC Radio. She has won second and third-place in the Accenti Magazine Writing Contest, Honourable Mentions in the Prism Non-Fiction and Room Fiction contests, and was a Broken Pencil Deathmatch finalist. Terri has also been shortlisted for three CBC Literary Awards, the FISH Publishing Memoir, EVENT Magazine Non-fiction and Vanderbilt-Exile Short Fiction contests. Her novella, The Proxy Bride (2012), received a Ken Klonsky-Quattro Books Award. Terri collaborated on the graphic novels Bella and the Loyalist Heroine (Grey Borders, 2012) and Waiting For Mario Puzo (forthcoming). She blogs at terrifavro.ca

Celebrating love and desire ...

Emcee/co-organizer Giovanna Riccio

Giovanna

Poet Nancy Bullis

Poet Norman Cristofoli

Norman

Poet Sheila Stewart

Sheila

Writer & co-organizer Michelle Alfano

Michelle

KD Miller, writer

Our gracious QSpace host Luciano Iacobelli

February Reading

 

Michelle Alfano is a co-organizer of the (Not So) Nice Italian Girls & Friends Reading Series and a Co-Editor 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 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 was recently featured in the documentary Saturnia featured on OMNI-TV and at the Moving Images Film Festival. She is currently at work at a new novel entitled Vita’s Prospects.

Nancy Bullis hosts HOWL, CIUT 89.5FM which airs every other Tuesday evening at 10pm. She is the author of a novella Henry (Lyrical Myrical Press), a full-length poetry book The Eel Ladder (WatershedBooks), a chapbook Leather Lattice and a spoken word performer.

Norman Cristofoli has published seven chapbooks of poetry and prose and produced two CD’s of poetry/musical collaborations. He is also the publisher of the Labour of Love literary magazine. Norman would rather sit in the back row of the balcony, as far away from the spotlight as possible, and believes bios should be buried with the artist.

Sheila Stewart has two collections of poetry, The Shape of a Throat (Signature Editions, 2012) and A Hat to Stop a Train (Wolsak and Wynn, 2003), now in its second printing. She co-edited The Art of Poetic Inquiry with Suzanne Thomas and Ardra L. Cole (Backalong Books, 2012). Sheila’s poetry has been recognized by several awards, including the gritLIT competition and the Pottersfield Portfolio Short Poem Contest. Formerly a community- based adult literacy worker, Sheila is using poetic inquiry in her Ph.D. at OISE, University of Toronto. 

And as emcee ...

Giovanna Riccio was born in Calabria and immigrated to Canada as a child. Her poems have appeared in newspapers, magazines, journals and anthologies. Her work has been translated into Romanian and a number of her poems are being translated into Italian for an upcoming anthology to be published in Italy. She is the author of Vittorio (Lyricalmyrical Press) and Strong Bread (Quattro Books).

November Reading

Sam Bernstein reading from her memoir

Sam

Writer Andrew Borkowski

Andrew

Poet Sonia DiPlacido

Sonia

Writer Garry Dwyer Joyce

Andrew and Garry

Bianca Lakoseljac

Bianca

Emcee & co-organizer Giovanna Riccio

NSNIG&F friends Christine Elias & Danielle Richardson

KD Miller and friend

Giovanna, writer Diane Bracuk and Andrew

Danielle and emcee/co-organizer Michelle Alfano

November Reading

Samantha Bernstein's memoir, Here We Are Among the Living, was published by Tightrope Books in June 2012. She is in the fourth year of an English Ph.D. at York University; her writing has appeared in various places, including Exile, The Fiddlehead and Numero Cinq. Here We Are Among the Living is available in bookstores, on Amazon, and through Tightrope Books. tightropebooks.com

Andrew Borkowski’s debut collection of short stories, Copernicus Avenue, was published by Cormorant Books in 2011. He studied Journalism and English Literature at Carleton University. Over his thirty-year career, he has published articles in the Globe and Mail, the Canadian Forum, Quill & Quire, TV Guide, and the Los Angeles Times, and contributed as an editor to titles published by John Wiley and Sons Canada, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Pearson Canada and D&M Publishers. His short fiction has appeared in Grain, The New Quarterly, and in Storyteller. His story “Twelve Versions of Lech,” was nominated for the 2007 Writer’s Trust/McClelland and Stewart Journey Prize and published in Journey Prize Stories 19.

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 Hons. BA in Humanities from York University. She has worked as a Supernumerary with the Canadian Opera Company, is a member of the Association of Italian Canadian Writers and The League of Canadian Poets. Sonia has published profile pieces, creative non-fiction, and poems in literary journals and anthologies. 

Garret Dwyer-Joyce was born and educated in Dublin, fled to Canada to escape the rain only to find himself knee-deep in snow. However, he fell in love - with a woman, not the snow - and stayed. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The Fiddlehead, Descant and Foreign Affairs. He lives in Toronto and works as a documentary producer with CTV's W5.

Bianca Lakoseljac is the author of three books: Summer of the Dancing Bear (Guernica Editions, 2012) a novel about the rite of passage of a fourteen year old girl befriended by a gypsy clan; Bridge in the Rain (Guernica Editions, 2010), a collection of stories linked by an inscription on a bench in Toronto’s High Park; and, Memoirs of a Praying Mantis, a collection of poetry. Her writing has been published in journals and anthologies such as the Inanna Publication and Education, York University; and Central European Association for Canadian Studies. Bianca taught communication courses at Ryerson University and Humber College. She is Past President of the Canadian Authors Association, Toronto branch, and has judged various national literary competitions. 

Nyla Matuk is the author of the chapbook, Oneiric, published in 2009. Her poems have appeared in Maisonneuve, The Walrus, Canadian Notes and Queries, ARC Poetry, the Literary Review of Canada, and The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2012.  Her first full-length collection, Sumptuary Laws, was published in Fall 2012 with Signal Editions/Véhicule Press. She was nominated twice in 2012 for The Walrus Poetry Prize.

Emcees: 

Michelle Alfano is a co-organizer of the (Not So) Nice Italian Girls & Friends Reading Series and a Co-Editor 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. Her fiction and non-fiction work has been widely published in major literary publications. She was featured in a documentary on the passengers of the Saturnia that was featured on OMNI-TV and at the Moving Images Film Festival. She is currently at work at a new novel entitled Vita’s Prospects. 

Giovanna Riccio was born in Calabria and immigrated to Canada as a child. Her poems have appeared in newspapers, magazines, journals and anthologies. Her work has been translated into Romanian and a number of her poems are being translated into Italian for an upcoming anthology to be published in Italy. She is the author of Vittorio (Lyricalmyrical Press) and Strong Bread (Quattro Books).

October 2012

Terri Favro, author of The Proxy Bride, begins the night ...

Terri

Poet Whitney French reading from 3 Cities

Whitney

Author Darlene Madott

Darlene, fresh from her launch of Stations of the Heart

Poet David Day 

David

KD Miller reading from the chilling collection The Other Voice

 KD Miller

Rob Fujimoto, NSNIG&F designer & Christine Elias, NSNIG&F supporter

Dom Capilongo, poet & short story writer

Dom reading from Subtitles

The fresh new releases of 2012

NSNIG&F co-organizer & emcee Giovanna Riccio

NSNIG&F co-organizer & emcee Michelle Alfano

Poets Luc Iacobelli and Dom Capilongo

October Reading

Domenico Capilongo lives in Toronto. His first book of poetry, I thought elvis was Italian was short-listed for the 2010 Bressani Literary Award.  His second book of jazz-inspired poetry, hold the note, was long-listed for the 2010 ReLit Award. His first book of short stories, Subtitles, is published this fall with Guernica Editions. 

David Day is a poet and author who has published 40 books of poetry, ecology, history, fantasy, mythology and fiction. His first book of poems was published in 1975. Day has been published in magazines and newspapers worldwide. He has also been a magazine editor, a columnist for the Daily Mail and Punch, a scriptwriter for television, a playwright for theatre, and a dramaturge for the Royal Birmingham Ballet. His books have won numerous literary awards and been selected as "Books of the Year" by Time Magazine, New Scientist, Parents Magazine and the Observer. David Day's books have sold over 4 million copies and have been translated into twenty languages. 

The daughter of Italian immigrants to the Niagara peninsula, Terri Favro's fiction and non-fiction have been published in Prism, Geist, Riddle Fence, Accenti and More Magazine, among others. Shortlisted three times for the CBC Literary Awards, Terri was a Diaspora Dialogues Emerging Toronto Writer in 2011 and her work has been anthologized in TOK: Writing the New Toronto Vol. 6 and Behind Barbed Wire: Creative Works on the Internment of Italian Canadians. Her graphic novel, Bella and the Loyalist Heroine, was published this year by Grey Borders. Her first novella, The Proxy Bride, was co-winner of the 2012 Ken Klonsky Novella Award and has just been launched by Quattro Books, available at http://www.quattrobooks.ca/quattro-fiction/the-proxy-bride.

Whitney French is a writer, educator and literacy advocate. She writes poetry and short fiction and facilitates creative writing workshops for children, young offenders, teenage mothers and adults with mental disorders across Toronto. Her first collection of poetry 3 Cities, released April 2012, explores her experiences living in three Canadian cities: Bradford, Toronto and Montreal. 

K.D. Miller’s short stories have been nominated for the Journey Prize, published widely in Canadian magazines and broadcast by CBC.  Her first collection, A Litany in Time of Plague, was critically praised in 1994. Her second collection, Give Me Your Answer, was short-listed for the inaugural Upper Canada Brewing Company’s Writer’s Craft Award and named by the Toronto Star as one of the ten best books of 1999. Holy Writ, a series of personal essays, followed in 2001. Her first novel, Brown Dwarf (Biblioasis, 2010). Her latest book of stories, The Other Voice (Stonebunny Press, 2011). She is presently at work on another collection, All Saints, to be published in 2014 by Biblioasis. K.D. Miller has participated in numerous book launches, public readings and literary events throughout Ontario. She has appeared as a keynote speaker and has chaired panel discussions at literary conferences. She has experience mentoring emerging writers, evaluating manuscripts and teaching creative writing courses and workshops. K.D. Miller lives in Toronto. View her website at www.dawnwriter.com. 

Susan Swan was unable to read due to illness. In her place Darlene Madott read.

Darlene Madott is a Toronto lawyer and author. Her most recent collection of interconnected stories is Stations of the Heart (Exile Editions) launched in the Fall 2012. The title story of Making Olives and Other Family Secrets (Longbridge Books 2008) won the Bressani Literary Award, 2008. Darlene has read in New York, at the John Calandra Institute, Queen's College/CUNY, conference entitled "The Land of Our Return" (April, 2009), from a story "On Leave Takings and Monuments", previously published in Accenti magazine. Her stories have been anthologized in Italian Canadian Voices (Mosaic Press, 2006, ed. Caroline di Giovanni), and More Sweet Lemons (Longbridge, 2010).