Letters of Introduction? Lear, Gissing and Douglas’s Travels to Calabria
History

Letters of Introduction? Lear, Gissing and Douglas’s Travels to Calabria

For centuries, letters of introduction were considered almost as essential…

She Deserves to Be Happy: The Illusion of Choice in Michaela Di Cesare’s Extra/Beautiful/U
Review

She Deserves to Be Happy: The Illusion of Choice in Michaela Di Cesare’s Extra/Beautiful/U

Michaela Di Cesare’s new play, Extra/Beautiful/U, premiered at Montreal’s Centaur…

Making Waves: An Interview with Guy Rex Rodgers
Interview

Making Waves: An Interview with Guy Rex Rodgers

Guy Rex Rodgers is the founding executive director (2004-2021) of the English Language Arts Network, or ELAN; "a not-for-profit organization that connects, supports, and creates opportunities for Quebec’s English-speaking artists and arts communities.” He is the producer, writer, director and narrator of What We Choose to Remember, a 93-minute feature documentary that looks at the impact that non-Francophone immigration has had on Québec in general and Montreal in particular. He recently spoke with Accenti Publisher Domenic…

Mara

Mara

Some days the sea was all brute force. A throaty, roaring blast. It slammed its weight against the shore, almost…

­­The Move

­­The Move

“Mom, the woman will be here at 11:30. Are you ready?” “What’s her name?” the mother asked, slumping in her…

In Search of an Altered Identity in Bruna Martini’s Roots-Radici

In Search of an Altered Identity in Bruna Martini’s Roots-Radici

Roots, Radici. (BeccoGiallo, 2022) is Bruna Martini’s new installment in her graphic memoir series and examines the author’s own altered…

That Day on the Terrace

That Day on the Terrace

The commuter train was running a few minutes late. I texted Claudia to let her know. I was excited to…

A Review of Domenico Capilongo’s 1972

A Review of Domenico Capilongo’s 1972

In one sense, 1972 is an extension of some of Domenico Capilongo’s past work. Once again, Capilongo writes about growing…

Queen City

Queen City

The 1960s continued to see increasing numbers of Italians immigrating to Canada. Virtually all those who came, did so on…

Ottawa’s “Village”

Ottawa’s “Village”

Cars, trucks, and heavy transports bustle down the busy thoroughfare known as Preston Street. A vital link between the city…

Ottawa’s Little Italy Revives Street Art As It Revives Itself

Ottawa’s Little Italy Revives Street Art As It Revives Itself

Ottawa’s Preston Street developed its Italian-Canadian identity well before the 1950s, when the bulk of Italian immigration began. More importantly,…

Calabria in Mind

Calabria in Mind

Intellectuals, too, take vacations, and they generally don’t look askance to venues off the beaten track. This is what Margherita…

IN MEMORIAM: Remembering Len Gasparini

IN MEMORIAM: Remembering Len Gasparini

Curated by George Elliott Clarke When poet Leonard Gasparini passed away in October 2022, aged 81, lost was one of…

IN MEMORIAM: Remembering Luciano Iacobelli

IN MEMORIAM: Remembering Luciano Iacobelli

Luciano Iacobelli passed away on August 30, 2022, after a long illness that eroded his body, but not his spirit.…

At a Loss – The Science and Art of Being a Hairstylist

At a Loss – The Science and Art of Being a Hairstylist

Victor DiBenedetto has spent a lifetime discreetly making his customers look and feel their best. For nearly five decades, the…

Letters of Introduction? Lear, Gissing and Douglas’s Travels to Calabria

Letters of Introduction? Lear, Gissing and Douglas’s Travels to Calabria

For centuries, letters of introduction were considered almost as essential as passports for travelling within what is now Italy. A…

Giuseppe Musolino: Brigand King of Calabria

Giuseppe Musolino: Brigand King of Calabria

“He was the Robin Hood of Italy,” my mother said when she first showed me the tattered old book in…

When Fiorello La Guardia Came to Ottawa

When Fiorello La Guardia Came to Ottawa

Fiorello La Guardia, the larger-than-life mayor of New York City, was the big draw at the Third National Conference of…

Making Waves: An Interview with Guy Rex Rodgers

Making Waves: An Interview with Guy Rex Rodgers

Guy Rex Rodgers is the founding executive director (2004-2021) of the English Language Arts Network, or ELAN; "a not-for-profit organization…

In Conversation with Robert Marra

In Conversation with Robert Marra

Born in Toronto, visual artist Robert Marra studied and created ceramic arts while living in Italy in the 1980s. He…

Glenn Carley on His “Urban Opera” Il Vagabondo

Glenn Carley on His “Urban Opera” Il Vagabondo

In his new book, Il Vagabondo: An Urban Opera (Guernica 2021), Glenn Carley introduces a new avant-garde genre – literature…

Dining With the Gods – A Travel Essay

Dining With the Gods – A Travel Essay

After almost half a century living in Toronto’s Little Italy, I make a return journey to the place where I…

More Precious than Diamonds

More Precious than Diamonds

Despite my frequent trips to Italy, I consciously decided never to learn the language. With blissful ignorance, I always preferred…

Italian San Francisco

Italian San Francisco

It is impossible to think of San Francisco without its Italian heritage. There are the notables: A.P. Giannini, who founded…

She Deserves to Be Happy: The Illusion of Choice in Michaela Di Cesare’s Extra/Beautiful/U

She Deserves to Be Happy: The Illusion of Choice in Michaela Di Cesare’s Extra/Beautiful/U

Michaela Di Cesare’s new play, Extra/Beautiful/U, premiered at Montreal’s Centaur Theatre last November as part of Centaur’s Brave New Looks…

A Review of Domenico Capilongo’s 1972

A Review of Domenico Capilongo’s 1972

In one sense, 1972 is an extension of some of Domenico Capilongo’s past work. Once again, Capilongo writes about growing…

A Stroll Through Mark Frutkin’s The Walled Garden

A Stroll Through Mark Frutkin’s The Walled Garden

While hoeing his garden one day – so the story goes – Saint Francis of Assisi was asked what he…

Exposing the Soft Underbelly of the Legal System: A Review of Darlene Madott’s Winners and Losers

Exposing the Soft Underbelly of the Legal System: A Review of Darlene Madott’s Winners and Losers

I approached Winners and Losers, Darlene Madott’s latest literary offering, with high expectations. Her last book, Dying Times, was a…

Stranger in a Strange Land … or How I learned to Love the Hyphen

Stranger in a Strange Land … or How I learned to Love the Hyphen

Culture is a system of values – economic values, aesthetic values, moral values etc – to want to preserve it…

Another Timeless Italian Tradition

Another Timeless Italian Tradition

It may have been a spoonful of sugar for the family, yet it always left a bitter taste on my…

If Only We Knew

If Only We Knew

My father-in-law was a contadino from Castropigano. He was brilliant. He had a grade five education. He possessed the patience…

Rinasheremo

Rinasheremo

Love given wholeheartedly, inclusively and unconditionally is inexhaustible. – Anonymous The first time I acknowledged it out loud, I was…

Feeling God’s Presence: A Review of Mary Melfi’s Welcome to Hard Times

Feeling God’s Presence: A Review of Mary Melfi’s Welcome to Hard Times

Mary Melfi has written over a dozen books, including fiction, non-fiction, memoires and plays, and her books have been translated…

In Search of an Altered Identity in Bruna Martini’s Roots-Radici

In Search of an Altered Identity in Bruna Martini’s Roots-Radici

Roots, Radici. (BeccoGiallo, 2022) is Bruna Martini’s new installment in her graphic memoir series and examines the author’s own altered…

Alla scoperta di un’identità mutata in Roots / Radici di Bruna Martini

Alla scoperta di un’identità mutata in Roots / Radici di Bruna Martini

Bruna Martini torna a sorprenderci nuovamente con il suo graphic memoir, Roots. Radici, (BeccoGiallo, 2022) alla riscoperta della propria “identità…

The Drama of Caravaggio

The Drama of Caravaggio

An 11-year-old boy is walking on the edge of a forest near his uncle’s farm in the Lombardy region of…

Italian-Canadian Writers Gather in Torino for Biennial Conference

Italian-Canadian Writers Gather in Torino for Biennial Conference

The Association of Italian-Canadian Writers (AICW) held its biennial conference at the University of Torino, in Torino, Italy, from September…

2021 Accenti Contests – Winners Announced

2021 Accenti Contests – Winners Announced

  Montreal, May 16, 2021 – We are pleased to report the names of the winners of the 2021 Accenti…

Creative Spaces: Queer and Italian-Canadian

Creative Spaces: Queer and Italian-Canadian

What does it mean to be queer and Italian-Canadian? And what experiences do queer Italian-Canadians have when their sexual orientation…

2020 Accenti Contests – Winners Announced

2020 Accenti Contests – Winners Announced

Montreal, May 26, 2020 – Publisher Domenic Cusmano and Editor-in-chief Licia Canton are pleased to announce the winners of the 2020…