Frank Paci has been called one of the fathers of Italian-Canadian writing. His book, The Italians, was the first English novel to deal with the experience of Italian immigrants in Canada. Since 1978 Paci has chronicled this experience in powerful realistic narratives which have inspired other writers. The essays collected in this volume deal with some of Paci's eight novels and explore several literary themes, moral questions and philosophical preoccupations of this little known author. This book contains essays by Caterina Edwards, Roberta Sciff-Zamaro, Enoch Panofsky, Anna Carlevaris, Marino Tuzi, Gaetano Rando and Joseph Pivato, as well as a brief biography of F.G. Paci and an interview in three parts by C.D. Minni and Joseph Pivato.

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).

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