The Italian Cultural Institute of Montreal and the Association of Italian Canadian Writers (AICW), as part of the series of webinars dedicated to the work of writing, an experience animated by Italian-Canadian authors, translators, filmmakers, journalists, publishers, bloggers …, are pleased to present the webinar entitled “Writing and Publishing: creativity and market orientation”
Tuesday July 28, 2020, 5:00 pm EST
Today’s changes in publishing are often generated by market trends, so much so as to influence the choices and strategies of publishers and the cultural sensitivities of readers. The issues raised are manifold and among many: what causes a publisher to publish an unpublished work? What are the challenges, difficulties, awards of today’s big and small publishers? Participating publishers at the webinars are Salvatore Bancheri (Italian Canadiana Journal), Domenic Cusmano (Accenti Magazine, Longbridge Books) and Connie Guzzo McParland (Guernica Editions), who will speak and discuss with Gianluca Agostinelli, Annalisa Panati and Giulia Verticchio, young writers and scholars.
Salvatore Bancheri is a Professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga. He was the Chair and Emilio Goggio Chair of the Department of Italian Studies, the University of Toronto (2011-2019); Director of the Frank Iacobucci Centre for Italian Canadian Studies (2005-2019); editor of Italian Canadiana (2004-2019). He was the President of the American Association of Teachers of Italian (AATI, 2014-2017). His research interests and publications are primarily in the area of textual criticism, religious theatre, Eighteenth-Century literature, Sicilian literature, second-language teaching and learning, theatre: theory and perfor-mance, Italian Canadian studies, second-language acquisition and media tech-nology dedicated to the teaching of Italian. In 2018, he was conferred by the President of the Italian Republic the title of “Ufficiale dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia”.
Domenic Cusmano is a communications professional, photo-journalist, pub-lisher, and former educator. His work as a photojournalist has taken him throughout Europe, Africa and South America. He is a co-founder of Accenti Magazine, and founder and publisher of Longbridge Books, dedicated to the publication of works of fiction and non-fiction that promote cultural diversity. He holds degrees from Université de Montréal and McGill University.
President and co-director of Guernica Editions, Connie Guzzo McParland holds a BA in Italian Literature and a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Concordia University. Her novel The Girls of Piazza d’Amore was shortlisted for the Concordia First Novel Award. Her second novel The Women of Saturn will soon be published in Italian by Rubbettino Editore.
Gianluca Agostinelli is a Professor of English and Communications at Niagara College Canada, an Occasional and Continuing Education Teacher with the Ni-agara Catholic District School Board, and an Education Instructor and Practi-cum Advisor at Brock University, where he is completing a Ph.D. in Educational Studies. He has published short stories, poems, personal essays and academic articles.
Annalisa Panati is an Italian writer and mathematician. She currently works as a researcher at the Centre de Physique Théorique in Marseille, and she teaches mathematics at Université de Toulon. She has regular collaborations with McGill University and she spent extensive periods in Montreal as visiting professor. She is the author of La venditrice di sogni (Schena Editore, 2008), which re-ceived the Valerio Gentile Prize, and Storie di donne e di pianura (Schena Edito-re, 2014), and the play Vita e sogni di mister Pauli (ScienzaExpress, 2020), staged by the Teatro e Scienza Association in Torino, Italy.
Giulia Verticchio was born and raised in Rome, where she graduated from Università Roma Tre. With European scholarships, she studied at the Université d’Angers, France, and Bristol, United Kingdom. She arrived in Canada in 2015, as an intern at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Montreal. She has a Master’s Degree from UQAM, where she currently teaches Italian. She is a newscaster at Radio CFMB 1280AM and a journalist at the weekly Cittadino Canadese. She is currently the Secretary on the AICW Executive.