Amber Dawn is the author of five books and the editor of three anthologies. She currently teaches creative writing at Douglas College, as well as guest mentors at several community-driven spaces by and for sex workers.
Julian A M.P. is a queer, trans-masculine, second-generation, northern-European settler, an artist, teacher and parent grateful to live and work in Tkaronto, the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples. Julian credits his parents for their modelling of love, care, determination and endurance.
Eleonora Andretta is an interpreter and translator for Italian, English, and German, and an Instructor of English at George Brown College. She obtained a Master’s degree in interpreting and translation from the University of Trieste, Italy, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from the University of Nottingham, UK.
Michael Belcher is a writer and educator living in Montreal, Quebec. He has written for enRoute, Billdr, and The Secret Mountain. His play Between Night and Day was voted a Top 10 Play in the Montreal Mirror. Michael teaches Media Studies and English Literature at College LaSalle.
Of Italian descent, Canadian literary translator Scott Belluz has been published in journals such as The Italian Review, The Stinging Fly, Your Impossible Voice, Anomalous Press, and Mayday Magazine. He is a contributing translator to the Pirandello Society of America’s “Stories for a Year” project.
Poet, playwright and actor, Tina Biello was born to immigrant parents in a small logging town on Vancouver Island. The Weight of Survival (Caitlin Press, 2024) is her fourth book of poems. She recently finished a three-year cycle of writing librettos for composers with the Vancouver Island Symphony.
Anthony Bonato is a gay man and award-winning mathematician. In addition to his five mathematics books, his popular math book will appear with Johns Hopkins University Press in 2025. Bonato is currently a full Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Toronto Metropolitan University
Gaspare Borsellino lives in Montreal. He was president of the Gruppo Italiano Gay e Lesbico di Montreal (GIGL). The group had 70 members and lasted for approximately 10 years, from 1996 to 2006.
Anna Camilleri works across diverse media, including literature, sculpture, installation, and theatre. A producer and public artist, her practice is activated through collaboration. Her bookworks have been recognized by the LAMBDA Literary Foundation, the Association of Independent Publishers, and the American Library of Congress. She is artistic director of ReDefine Arts.
Licia Canton is the director of the documentary Creative Spaces: Queer and Italian Canadian (2021) and editor-in-chief of Accenti Magazine. She is the author of The Pink House and Other Stories (2018). For her work in culture, she received the Italy in the World Prize (2018). She holds a Ph.D. from Université de Montréal.
Jessica Carpinone loves to get lost in a good memoir and hopes to write one of her own someday. Most of her time is spent operating a bustling bakery & cafe, and making bread. She lives in Ottawa, on unceded Algonquin Territory, with her partner and cat.
Giuseppe Caruso is a gay man and first-generation Italian, raised in Montreal, but now living in Lisbon. Giuseppe enjoys drawing and creative writing, and is currently working on his first novel. His passion for connecting with and helping people has led him to develop a practice as a professional coach.
Mirko Casagranda is Associate Professor of English Linguistics and Translation Studies at the University of Calabria, Italy. His areas of interest include onomastics, critical discourse analysis, gender studies, and translation studies. He has published articles and books on codeswitching and multilingualism in Canada, ecocritical discourse analysis, place and trade names, gender and translation.
Samantha Civitarese (she/her) is a queer Italian-Canadian writer and poet from Calgary, AB. She is currently completing her MA in Italian Studies at the University of Notre Dame. She is an avid traveller and enjoys writing as a form of expression.
Rachele Clemente is a queer Veneta graphic designer and occasional writer who is dedicated to intersectional social justice movement work in Tkaronto and beyond. She can most often be found working on her book, which may or may not ever get published, or curled up by her stereo.
Paul Coccia writes books for middle-grade and young adult readers. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and is often found baking in his Toronto kitchen with his nephew, dogs, and parrot who loves pasta.
Emilio Colalillo is a professional dancer and choreographer. He is the founder and artistic director of EMiMOTION. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Direction, Choreography and Creation from York University.
Liana Cusmano is a Montreal Slam Champion (2018, 2019, 2023), finalist for the QWF Spoken Word Prize (2022), author of Catch and Release (2022). They wrote and directed Matters of Great Unimportance (2018) and La Femme Finale (2016), screened at Cannes Film Festival. Their work (in English, French, Italian) explores heritage, queerness, and mental illness.
Selena Di-Filippo (they/them), “The Dandelion Poet,” is a genderqueer, bisexual of Italian heritage. They grew up in Rivi.re-des-Prairies, Montreal, where queerness was not represented in Italian-Canadian culture. Selena writes to give visibility to other queer Italian-Canadians who may need it most.
Vee Di Gregorio is a nonbinary multimedia artist and writer based on the unceded territory of Tiohtià:ke. A second-generation Italian-Canadian, their work focuses on diasporic histories, the conflicts of personal identities, and the inconsistencies of memory. They hold a degree in photography as well as a BFA in Film Production from Concordia University. They work in documentary film.
Julia DiPalo is a PhD student in English Literature at the University of Waterloo. She specializes in Italian-Canadian literature, specifically the exploration of women’s and queer narratives. Her academic focus contributes to a broader understanding of contemporary Italian-Canadian literature.
Christopher DiRaddo is the author of the novels The Family Way and The Geography of Pluto. He lives in Montreal where he is the founder and host of The Violet Hour Reading Series & Book Club. Website: www.christopherdiraddo.com.
John Di Stefano, PhD, is an artist/filmmaker, writer and academic. His creative practice focuses on reconciling the personal with the social, the everyday with history by revisiting archival material. This documentary-based work often deals with his own immigrant past seen through a queer lens. He currently teaches at Concordia University.
Michael D’Itri is a queer writer, educator, and student of Italian descent. He is currently a PhD candidate at McGill University as well as a professor at Champlain College. His grandparents hail from the Italian towns of Isernia and Conversano.
Nikki Donadio is a queer neurodivergent writer of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. She holds an MA in Creative Writing and currently works in the non-profit sector. She has two awesome kids and loves cookies and pizza. You can find her work in the first volume of Here & Now, Plenitude, and others.
Konrad Eisenbichler, CM, OMRI, FRSC, is part of the Julian-Dalmatian expatriate community. The son of an Austrian father and an Italian mother, both born, like him, in Lussinpiccolo (previously Austria, then Italy, now Mali Lošinj, Croatia), he grew up in an Italian-speaking family and self-identifies as culturally Italian and Canadian.
Matthew Fox is the author of the novel This Is It and the collection Cities of Weather. Born in Windsor, he’s since lived in Toronto, Montreal, Berlin, and New York, where he earned his MFA from The New School. His credits include Grain, New Quarterly, Big Fiction, and Maisonneuve.
Paolo Frascà (he/they; lui) was born in Calabria and moved to Tkaronto (Toronto) as a teenager. He is a professor in the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Toronto, where he is also affiliated with the Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies and the Global Migration Lab (Munk School). His research and teaching focus on language pedagogy, sexuality studies, and Italian-Canadian studies.
Steve Galluccio’s play Mambo Italiano (2002) was turned into a movie and sold in more than fifty countries. He is also known for the movies Funkytown (2011) and Little Italy (2018). His most recent play, At the Beginning of Time, was produced at Centaur Theatre (Montreal) in 2023.
Julia Gerbasi (she/her), M.A., is a therapist by day, poet by night, pasta lover any time. She is the author of Unsent Letters (2021) and writer of many unfinished texts. Seeking clarity, connection and understanding, Julia is forever a student of the mind-heart connection.
Melissa Giacomini (she/her) is a creative based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. The child of southern Italian immigrants that settled in what’s known as Canada, she is proudly queer and bisexual. Melissa is forever curious, particularly about the impacts of consumerist culture on human connection. Melissa cares deeply about community, authenticity and joy.
Milena Gioia is a queer Italian kaleidoscope of possibility. A community organizer and activist in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal for 15 years, they are now leaning into more of their creativity – writing, herbalism, drag. They walk the line of honouring their Italian roots and building queer futures – and look forward to more intersections of the two.
Nicole Haldoupis is a writer and visual artist from Toronto who lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Her first book, Tiny Ruins (Radiant Press, 2020), was shortlisted for four 2021 Saskatchewan Book Awards and the 2022 AICW-Bressani Literary Prize, and it is currently being adapted into a feature film.
Elio Iannacci is a writer, poet and arts reporter. His award-winning profiles include Sophia Loren, Barbra Streisand, Lady Gaga, Joni Mitchell and Beyoncé. He recently completed an MA at York University with a thesis on Queer-Diva Collaboration in 20th Century Pop Music.
Erica Lenti is a Toronto writer and editor. She is currently a deputy editor at Chatelaine.
Benedetto Magagnin was born in Stratford, Ontario, and has lived in Montreal since 1997. His parents immigrated to Canada, from Veneto, in the 1950s. He works at McGill’s School of Continuing Studies and TELUS’ Service d’Évaluation Linguistique. He’s working on a first novel.
Ariana Magliocco is a writer, researcher and visual artist. Passionate about Italian-Canadian anti-racist solidarity building and queer liberation, she sees her artistic practice as an offering to the folk traditions and embodied knowledge of her Sicilian, Laziale and Veneto ancestors.
Angelina Mazza is a Montreal-born writer and fact-checker living in Brooklyn. She is a graduate student in NYU’s Cultural Reporting and Criticism program, and her work has appeared/is forthcoming in Maisonneuve, CV2, Peach Mag, MAYDAY, Underblong, and the Poetry Foundation’s VS podcast. You can find her online @angejmazza.
Steff(ania) Juniper Mendolia is a third-generation, southern Italian-Canadian. They are a sober queer, non-binary trans witch, a mad/disability justice worker, writer and sound artist. They completed an arts-based MA in Critical Disability Studies, York University: “Trans-Feminist Witchcraft: A Psychiatric Survivor Narrative.” They are working on a PhD in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies.
Monica Meneghetti’s memoir What the Mouth Wants was a Lambda Award finalist and Bi Book Award winner. Her translations The Fifth: A Love(s) Story, and The Call of the Ice were award contenders. She chats with authors on Inkworm, her CKTZ 89.5 FM show. Meditation is integral to her writing and mentoring process.
Anna Nobile is a freelance writer and editor whose nonfiction and creative short fiction have been published in numerous newspapers, magazines, journals and anthologies. She lives, works, and plays in the traditional territory of the Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw of British Columbia.
Maria-Hélèna Pacelli (she/they) is a queer and nonbinary artist, writer and singer/songwriter. They completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master’s in Feminist and Gender Studies. Maria-Hélèna is of Italian/French-Canadian ancestry and recognizes the traditional land of the Kanyen’kehà:ka (Mohawk) and Omàmìwininiwag (Algonquin) first peoples, in rural Eastern Ontario where she lives.
Anthony Portulese is an editor and emerging writer living in Montreal. His works could be described as explorations of melancholy, and finding resilience through the personality of place. His writings to come will explore ideas of ethno-nationalism, identity through place, exile, language, family, and reclaiming Catholic identity as a queer individual.
Ryan Pulcini (he/him) lives and studies in Montreal.
Born in the historical war-torn town of Ortona, Giulio Recchioni spent his youth wandering the region of Abruzzo and falling in love with reading. In his twenties, he moved to British Columbia and discovered a passion for the Great Outdoors. Giulio currently lives in Toronto.
Jeremy R. Saunders is a queer Italian Canadian from Victoria, BC. They graduated from the University of Victoria with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. They work as an Academic Coordinator at an English language school, advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights, and write in various genres as seen in Here & Now (2021).
Heather Sdao (she/they) is a queer Italian-Canadian-Francophone living on the traditional territory of the Mississauguas of the New Credit First Nation, Métis Nation, Anishinabek and Huron-Wendat Nation. She tells stories and explores experiences through fibre arts, drawing and writing.
Christopher Sisca is an Italian-Canadian visual artist, writer, and anthropologist. He is studying Anthropology, DPhil (PhD), at the University of Oxford and working on Calabrian gastro-tourism development. He holds an MSc in Social Anthropology (University of Oxford), and an Honours BFA in Visual Arts (York University). His creative practices intersect his Calabrian culture and queerness.
Samantha Titcombe is a student at the University of Toronto. She has been an avid reader since age six, and has been writing stories since age 12. She has a proud Italian family who have supported her dreams since the beginning.
Celeste Turner is a queer, non-binary individual living on land traditionally of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe and Attawandaron peoples (Niagara region). Their work is dedicated to empowering 2S&LGBTQ+ individuals while tackling inequities. Celeste’s personal life comprises sharing wonder and tenderness with their partner, through the fullest depths and breadths of life together.
Vic Valente is a non-binary artist and advocate. They received an education in fine arts and sociology. They have a certain passion for rescue animals. In their work, they advocate for trans inclusion and queer specific programming in community agencies where queer folks’ unique needs and experiences are often overlooked.
mickey vescera (they/it, b. 1999) is a non-binary ceramicist, sculptor, and writer born and raised on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (so-called vancouver, bc). it is a 2021 graduate from emily carr university of art + design and has been working in clay since 2018.