Archives Out Loud: Italian-Canadian Literature

December 7, 2025, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Main Stage, Salle des célébrations

• Licia Canton
• Mary di Michele
• Carmine Starnino

Moderated by Nancy Marrelli

There is a significant body of excellent Italian-Canadian literature available from a variety of sources in English, French, and Italian. The panel will discuss some established works as well as new voices emerging from the next generation. This session is part of the Archives Out Loud series organized by the Italian-Canadian Archives of Quebec. The panel will be followed by a reception in the office of the Italian-Canadian Community Archives of Quebec, in the basement level of Casa d’Italia.

Licia Canton has published short stories, nonfiction and poetry in English, French, Italian and a Venetian dialect. She has been translator-in-residence at the University of Hull, UK, and Writer-in-Residence at Università della Calabria, Italy. She is co-founder of Accenti Magazine and co-director of the Queer Italian-Canadian Artists Research Project (U of Toronto). She is the director of the documentary film Creative Spaces: Queer and Italian Canadian (2021). She mentors emerging writers through the Quebec Writers’ Federation Hire-a-Writer directory. For her work in culture, she was awarded the Italy in the World Prize (2018). She holds a Ph.D. from Université de Montréal and an M.A. from McGill University.

Born in Italy and immigrated to Canada in 1955, Mary di Michele is an award-winning, internationally published writer. She is the author of more than twelve books, including the collection of poems Stranger in You and the novel Tenor of Love. Her last collection of poetry, Bicycle Thieves (ECW 2017), was short-listed for the Pat Lowther Award. She is active in the collaborative writing group Yoko’s Dogs. Now retired from teaching at Concordia University, she continues to live in Montreal.

Nancy Marrelli is Director of the Italian-Canadian Archives of Quebec at the Casa d’Italia, and Archivist Emerita, Concordia University. She is also co-publisher of Véhicule Press. Her family left Italy and settled in Montreal in 1909.

Carmine Starnino is the Editor in Chief of The Walrus. He is the author of eight books, including Dirty Words: Selected Poems 1997–2016.