Shortlisted for the F.G. Bressani Literary Prize

Karate, fatherhood, travel, and Italian-Canadian identity are the cornerstones of this sinewy premiere collection by Toronto poet Domenico Capilongo. Capilongo skillfully manipulates narrative, lyric and experimental poetic devices to disclose powerful personal journeys?whether back into childhood or into love?that radiate insight, courage and wisdom. An outstanding debut collection cherishing family and the ties that bind us to one another.

Born when rotary telephones came in multiple colours, Domenico Capilongo began writing with pencil and paper, passing poetry notes from the back of the class. He still writes in notebooks, used a typewriter in high school, and his earliest published poems were printed on a dot-matrix printer. His first books of poetry, I thought elvis was italian (2008) and hold the note (2010), as well as his first book of short fiction, Subtitles (Guernica, 2012), came very close to winning awards and were all mailed in the post. A high school creative writing teacher and karate instructor, he lives with his wife and children in Toronto.

Domenico Capilongo's profile page

"Capilongo's strongest point his ability to use the ingredients for the defining of an Italian-Canadian identity to produce writing that transcends that identity." - Accenti

"All is done with clarity, feeling, and some sly understated humour." - Prairie Fire Magazine

"Capilongo's poems often demonstrate a lightness of tough of either wit or observation that is promising." - Journal of Canadian Poetry