To date I have published seven poetry books, three novels, one children’s fantasy novel, two drama books and two works of non-fiction, one of which, Italy Revisited, was translated into French and Italian. Which form do I find the most challenging? They are equally challenging and fun. Writing itself does not require much effort. Finding publishers does.

The writing of the book was a long process. When I started, I didn't see what I saw when I came to the final version of this manuscript. When I started writing this, I saw myself only as a failure of a scholar. When I finished, I saw that everything I strove for was meaningless in the new decolonized academy. I still think the academy is a colonizers project, a relic of King Arthur's round table of knights, a world of landed gentry, so the decolonizing project is not complete… and also the academy is being taken over by a market economy, degrees are monetized, students purchase credentials as clients. So on the one hand we have decolonization of academic elitism and on the other, a kind of capitalist revision of education.

After close to eighty years of poems, short stories, novels, and essays, readers have the right to ask what is an Italian Canadian writer if there is no legal justification for such an ID. There are three possibilities: you own the Italian passport, you own the Canadian passport, or you own both. Only if you have both passports, have you the right to consider yourself an Italian and a Canadian. Otherwise you are either an Italian or a Canadian. Nonetheless, at some point, a few writers of my generation brought together both identities, and in so doing cracked open our conception of personal testimony. I needed to delve into what had been posited by this agglutination.

Extra/Beautiful/U centers on the story of five women as they shape each other’s lives, and affirm their own identities. A former Reality TV beauty queen needs reconstructive surgery after a violet car crash leaves her disfigured. Her surgeon turns out to be an old high school colleague; her nurse is a super fan; her mom is stressed out; her sister wants to live her own life. Cue transformative moments and five defiant spirits.

Domenico Capilongo’s latest book of poems is a blast-to-the-past, more specifically the 1970s. It’s a series of prose poems based on words added in the dictionary the year the poet was born.

Catering to kids of all ages, Marcangelo Benevenga’s new children’s book, Rain or Shine, is a heart-warming tale of Marc and his loyal dog Arya, who embark on an inspiring journey of finding motivation in unexpected places.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the death of master stained glassmaker and painter Guido Nincheri, Montreal’s Château Dufresne has created a new exhibit – titled Nincheri. From the Secular to the Sacred. – that brings together 40 original works by the Florentine artist. The works include drawings, watercolors, studies and sketches that showcase Nincheri’s first designs for the works he created for countless churches in Quebec and elsewhere. The exhibit also features a new digital tour of the Château itself, with a focus on commissioned works done at the request of the original owners.

Who knew a 19th century freedom fighter from southern Italy could provide inspiration for our current uncertain times? Montreal playwright and performer Michaela Di Cesare is clearly on to something. For the last several years, she has been learning everything there is to know about the tumultuous life of brigantessa Michelina Di Cesare.