Before Pier Giorgio Di Cicco was made Poet Laureate of Toronto (2004-2007), he was instrumental in the establishment of Italian-Canadian literature as a phenomenon in Canadian culture. He achieved this through his own impressive list of publications such as The Tough Romance (1979) and Virgin Science (1986). The essays in this volume examine Di Cicco's publications in this pluralistic social context. The contributors include Linda Hutcheon, Mary di Michele, George Elliott Clarke, Domenic Beneventi, Licia Canton, Joshua Lovelace, Stacey Gibson, Jim Zucchero, Clea McDougall 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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