The most inclusive collection of its kind in North America, this anthology includes a wide variety of genres, from fiction and poetry to essays, plays, film scripts and memoirs. The more than fifty authors represented come from across Canada and have backgrounds in all regions of Italy. Organized in three sections, "Writers from Our Past," "Writers for Our Time," and "Ironies of Identity," the book presents both published and unpublished excerpts from the work of writers of various ages and literary styles, providing a wide and heterogeneous view of the writing of Canadians of Italian descent.

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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