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Long Haul to Napoli

Long Haul to Napoli

Somewhere around November, Jonas got really into trucking. Not actual trucking, not driving an eighteen-wheeler twenty-five days a month and…

Life Is What Happens…

Life Is What Happens…

In a moment in time, a seismic pandemic strikes like a bolt of lightning and non-essential travel is banned. We…

A Crowded Bus on Kennedy Boulevard

A Crowded Bus on Kennedy Boulevard

La Playa was the beach that Costanza's father frequented as a boy. He had told her stories about spending the…

La Divina Cucina: A Guide to Food after Death

La Divina Cucina: A Guide to Food after Death

It’s a well known fact that the afterlife is run by Italians. Consequently, the menus of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise…

The Fontana

The Fontana

She sits on the seventh stone step leaning forward, her elbows on her thighs. The oppressive heat and the long…

Seven Improvised Stages in DIY Curative Stregheria

Seven Improvised Stages in DIY Curative Stregheria

ONE: Study the old religion of Italy. Make a mental shopping list of items you will not be able to…

Synesthesia

"Every Good Boy Deserves Freedom For All Children on Earth Got Bodies Desires Feelings and Affects All Children on Earth…

Tree of Life

Tree of Life

SAPLING Sunday mornings, Mom attends mass at St. Ambrose Church while Dad takes me to High Park where I play…

Truth, More or Less

Truth, More or Less

Causes of my grandmother’s lifelong limp – the one that afflicted her right leg (or maybe it was her left,…

Touching Calabria (A Short Story in Little Time)

Touching Calabria (A Short Story in Little Time)

“I’m firing the architect,” I said, “I wouldn’t set foot in my Church.” “The best is always the next.” “You…

Queen of the Majorettes

Queen of the Majorettes

Judy needs to pee. Beyond the barricade of blankets, she feels a chill against her cheeks. If she gets out…

Black Friday Sales Event Master

Black Friday Sales Event Master

I’m wearing knee pads under my sweat pants. I have a pair of plastic no-shatter glasses on, secured around my…

The Anthropology of Fire

The Anthropology of Fire

“Since the house is on fire, let us warm ourselves.” (Italian proverb)   Monday, 9 a.m. Not writing. Dim, dreary…

Silent in Its Shout: A Long Weekend in Sicilia

Silent in Its Shout: A Long Weekend in Sicilia

A Law unto Itself The Facebook invitation reads: Long Hair In Three Stages Live + Various Artists Meet Susan Musgrave,…

Flora and Bruno

  Flora and Bruno drive for hours – her fault, partly. Curled up in the front seat of the stolen…

Moon Hill

Moon Hill

A cotton ball moon hangs over Knocknarea. I push a wider gap in the curtains and stare up at it,…

Food Companion Wanted

Food Companion Wanted

The park sits in a deep dip on Caledonia Road just before the street climbs a steep hill, probably the…

Making Her Garden Grow

Mary, Mary quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells, And pretty maids all in…

My Husband Lives in My Garage

My Husband Lives in My Garage

When I first told others that my husband, Andrej, was living in my garage, they thought I spoke metaphorically –…

Just Visiting

Young, ambitious, and armed with a respectable résumé – notwithstanding the smug confidence that comes from all of the aforementioned…

ACCENTI MAGAZINE AWARDS: Celebrating Creativity with Style

ACCENTI MAGAZINE AWARDS: Celebrating Creativity with Style

Since 2003 Accenti has been a vehicle for expressing creativity through words and images. With its annual writing and photo contests, Accenti celebrates the…

This is Sunday Lunch

This is Sunday Lunch

Lunches are quiet at Via Scapardini 9. Father. Mother. Son. And me, the fiancée from Toronto. We eat in the…

The Three Sisters of Piacenza

The Three Sisters of Piacenza

My grandmother's house is too warm. Too crowded. Our second cousins from New York, up for Canadian Thanksgiving, are in…

The Birthday Suit

The Birthday Suit

Jimmy Barbucci slept peacefully through the continuing devastation of the Asian markets. He always awoke famished, unperturbed by the streak…

Lost Worlds

Lost Worlds

"Your dad's got my car in the shed," she tells me over the phone. "In the shed?" I say. "He…

Accenti Magazine Awards, 2009: Winners

Accenti Magazine Awards, 2009: Winners

The Fourth Annual Accenti Magazine Awards were held on April 24, 2009, at the 11th Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival.…

The Old Woman of Corniglia

The Old Woman of Corniglia

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? My husband asked this question on the morning of…

The Disappearing Sicily

The Disappearing Sicily

Papa holds me in his arms, one hand against my tummy, thumb spread wide like a pressure point centring the…

Going to the Chapel

The Italian wedding in Canada has become a bit of a cliché. As a first-generation Italian Canadian, I've had both…