Italian Villas in The English Patient and other Canadian Literary Works
When I was in grade eleven at St Michaels College School in Toronto, one of our assignments in English class was “Tuscan Villa,” a long poem by Douglas LePan. I remember this poem because it was very rare to see any high school text that referred to Italy in any way. Our English teacher explained that Mr LePan had served as an artilleryman in the Canadian Army during the Allies’ Italian campaign in 1943-44, fighting the Nazi German forces. LePan spent many days in the region of Tuscany observing the devastation to large buildings such as churches and villas. I…
Italian Republic Celebrates 80 Years
On June 2 of this year, Italy celebrated 80 years of republican government. On that…
A Celebration of Italian-Canadian Writing
Italian-Canadian Writers Gather in Italy for Biennial Conference More than 80 speakers and participants from…
My maternal grandmother, Nonna Nancy, was an Italian…
What We Choose to Forget (2026) documents the…
SPECIAL TO ACCENTI Glimpses of…
We all, depending on our…
Un Mondo Lontano
My mother lived between two worlds. In Rome, Where the folds of family And the…
A Review of Diane Pacitti’s Between Two States: An Italo-Scots Story
Between Two States: An Italo-Scots Story (Troubador, 2025; 359 pp) is Diane Pacitti’s novelistic treatment…
Seeing Sicily: A Circular Meditation on Light, Myth, and Memory
A long-held dream was finally coming to fruition, to follow the edge of Sicily, to…
A Review of Diane Pacitti’s Between Two States: An Italo-Scots Story
Between Two States: An Italo-Scots Story (Troubador, 2025; 359 pp) is Diane Pacitti’s novelistic treatment of her husband, artist Antonio…
Guy Rodgers’ New Book Chooses Not to Forget
What We Choose to Forget (2026) documents the third leg of a personal journey of discovery by Guy Rodgers, a…
Reflections on Dying Times by Darlene Madott
Dying Times (Exile Editions, 2021) and its recent Italian language iteration, Il carosello della morte (Les Flâneurs Edizioni, 2025, as…
Between Two Languages: In Conversation with Francesca Favaro
Francesca Favaro is the author of the short story collection La lettrice, published in a self-contained parallel English edition, translated…
Love All People: In Conversation with Frank Cardinal Leo, Archbishop of Toronto
Frank Cardinal Leo was ordained as a priest in 1996. He was consecrated as Auxiliary Bishop of Montreal, the city…
Creating a Future: Artist Mauro Balletti Reflects on Five Decades with Pop Icon Mina
In a rare and intimate interview with Elio Iannacci, visual artist Mauro Balletti reflects on his five-decade-plus collaboration with Mina—the…
The Lion of Zoppas
On the morning of September 2, 1965, four young Italian cyclists lined up in Lasarte, a small town near San…
The Disappearance and Presence of Federico Caffè: Two Mysteries and… a Silver Coffee Bean
On the night of April 14-15, 1987, Federico Caffè left his flat in the Monte Mario hill of Rome. On…
Gino Quilico, the Man and the Artist
In her new book, An Opera in Three Acts Starring Gino Quilico (LLP, 2022), Connie Guzzo McParland chronicles the lives…
Italian Villas in The English Patient and other Canadian Literary Works
When I was in grade eleven at St Michaels College School in Toronto, one of our assignments in English class…
Rome Beckons Me Back
The first time I visited Rome, I was nine years old. Throughout the year, my mother would save enough money…
What Italy Meant to Them: English Grand Tour Travelers and Charles Dickens
Upper-class Europeans and North Americans have always ranked Italy at the top of their cultural register. Believing that Italy was…
To Market, To Market – the Mercato Experience in Italy
The Mercato is an Italian tradition that goes back centuries. Once a week, travelling vendors come to town, set up…
Remembering the Italian-Canadian Women of the Internment
In June 1940, at the outbreak of World War II, Italy declared war on Great Britain. At the time, Canada…
A Century of Women’s Leadership in Montreal’s Italian Community
Montreal has long served as a hub for Italian immigration to Canada, fostering a diverse and resilient community shaped by…
Giving Ethnocultural Studies a Digital Future
The historiography of Canada’s ethnocultural communities has developed largely over the past 60 years and individual community histories continue to…
The Roncarelli Case: Defiance in the Pursuit of Justice
In 1946, Montreal restaurateur Frank Roncarelli, an Italian immigrant from Bologna, did the unimaginable – he sued the most powerful…
About Immigrants and Education in Quebec: Another Conversation with Guy Rex Rodgers
Guy Rex Rodgers is the writer and director of a series of documentary films that explore the impact of non-Francophone…
Tribute to an Italian Soldier, 1942
During World War II, many Italian soldiers captured by the British in North Africa were sent to different countries in…
Busting a Myth About Immigrants and Education in Quebec: In Conversation with Guy Rex Rodgers
Guy Rex Rodgers is the producer, writer, director and narrator of a series of documentary films that explores the impact…
The Growing Movement to Save the Sicilian Language
Something big is unfolding in Sicily, and no, it’s not a new season of White Lotus. There is a saying…
My Mother’s Terracotta Vase: from Calabria to London via Rome
The three of them looked sad and forlorn hiding behind the washing machine in her kitchen terrace. But even in…
Calabrese Nacatole: Byzantine Delights for the Holiday Season
As the festive season approaches, I think of my mom and her enigmatic smile, and how she diligently and lovingly…
Holiday Memories
Our holiday celebrations always began with Italian Christmas Eve fare: fish and seafood, and our regional specialty of polenta e baccalà. Around…
Mushrooms Like Paper-Thin Memories
Evenings on Prince Edward Island already smell like autumn. On the boardwalk at the end of each day the air…
A Celebration of Italian-Canadian Writing
Italian-Canadian Writers Gather in Italy for Biennial Conference More than 80 speakers and participants from across Canada, Italy, the United…
Five Poets Breaking Into Song: A Photographic Essay
SPECIAL TO ACCENTI Glimpses of George Elliott Clarke’s Song-Commissioning Project The Eighteenth Edition of “Five Poets Breaking into Song,” (a.k.a.…
A Celebration of Creativity at AccentiFest 2025
From June 26 to 28, 2025, the city of Charlottetown played host to the Accenti Magazine International Festival of the…
A Celebration of Italian-Canadian Voices
More than sixty writers of Italian heritage presented their work at the 19th Biennial Conference of the Association of Italian-Canadian…