This historic collection, the first of its kind, is devoted to the discussion of Italian-Canadian writers publishing in English, in French or in Italian. These critical essays include analyses of some important writing: F.G. Paci's Black Madonna, the poetry of Mary di Michele and Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, the plays of Marco Micone, Gens du Silence and Addolorata, the novels of Maria Ardizzi and many other titles. The ten contributors make significant additions to the study of Canadian literature: D.C. Minni examines the short story; Alexandre Amprimoz and Sante Viselli consider Italian-Canadian poetry; Roberta Sciff-Zamaro analyses Black Madonna; Robert Billings fathoms di Michels's verse; Frank Paci considers the task of the novelist. Fulvio Caccia's essay on the literary languages of Quebec is controversial as are Filippo Salvatore's arguments on the writer and politics. Antonio D'Alfonso speculates on future developments among the more than one hundred Italian-Canadian writers. In addition to editing the collection, Joseph Pivato introduces the volume with a long essay on ethnic history and literary criticism in Canada, includes another essay on Italian-language writers and concludes with a detailed bibliography and an index.

Joseph Pivato has been a Professor of English and Humanities at Athabasca for many years, and has also been Visiting Professor at other universities. In 1984-85 he was Research Fellow in the Ethnic and Immigration Studies Program at the University of Toronto. In 1987-88 he was the M.A. Elia Chair in Italian-Canadian Studies at York University and taught the first course on Italian-Canadian writing offered anywhere. In 1991 he was The Canadian Visiting Fellow at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. On these occasions he was able to do original research in Ethnic Minority Writing and the History of Italian-Canadian writing. His books include: Contrasts: Comparative Essays on Italian-Canadian Writing (Guernica, 1985), Echo: Essays on Other Literatures (1994) and The Anthology Of Italian-canadian Writing (Guernica, 1998). He was one of the writers included in Pier Giorgio Di Cicco'sRoman Candles (1978).

Joseph Pivato's profile page