Two Southwestern Ontario Writers

BRIGHT’S GROVE, ONTARIO (August 4, 2004) SWEET LEMONS: Writings with a Sicilian Accent, is a 300-page anthology, edited in Southwestern Ontario, with contributions from close to 60 North American writers.

Published by LEGAS of New York, but edited in Canada by Bright’s Grove residents Delia De Santis and Venera Fazio, the anthology celebrates Sicilian writers, culture, and immigrant experiences and includes the work of a number of award-winning writers.

"What started off as a suggestion at a conference of the Association of Italian Canadian Writers in Montreal," says co-editor Fazio, "ended up being the First North American collection of its kind. Delia and I are particularly pleased to include the work of Governor General’s award winner, David Homel, American Book Award winner Gioia Timpanelli, as well as Flannery O’Connor Short Fiction prize winners Tony Ardizzone and Rita Ciresi. A few of Sicily’s most renowned authors, including Nobel Laureate, Salvatore Quasimodo appear in translation."

Fazio adds, "We wanted the book to explore the complexities of a Sicilian heritage. We know, for example, that Sicilians are often painted with a broad Mafiosi brush and that’s one of the common myths about Sicilians that this book dispels. We hope by reading this book, Sicilians everywhere, but in particular, Canadian and Americans of Sicilian descent will feel proud of their heritage and their writers.

As Lilyrose Veneziano Broccia writes in her contribution to SWEET LEMONS, ‘My hyphenated existence has given me the ability to stretch across time, swim through seas, and understand beyond language. My hyphen is not a barrier, but a window to myself . . .’"

Salvatore Amico M. Buttaci is one of the Sicilian American writers represented in the anthology with his story ""Another Cup of Espresso?" and "In the Piazza Called Plado-Mosca."

Some of the other Sicilian American writers included are Tony Ardizzone, Edvige Giunta, Leo Marcello, Joe Accardi, Maggie Balistreri, and Christina Bruni.

Canadian contributors include Caterina Edwards, Michelle Alfano, Joseph Farina, Charly Chiarelli, Frank Canino, Paolo M. Fiorentino, Gianna Patriarca, Philippe Poloni, Salvatore Ala, Licia Canton, Venera Fazio, Carmen Laurenza Ziolkowski, Francesca Schembri, Sam Migliore, Giovanni Costa, and Anna Maria Carlevaris.

More Books are available from editors,

deliadesantis@yahoo.com and veneraf@ebtech.net and

from the publisher, Gaetano Cipolla (Legas)

cipollag@stjohns.edu.

As one of the Italian American writers included in Delia and Venera's Sweet Lemons...anthology of Sicilianesque works, I would like to say how very proud I am.

Delia and Venera worked so diligently in this labor of love to deliver a much needed and never-before-now available anthology written by writers of Sicilian extraction.  It is a sad time in media history when it seems the fashion to disparage Sicilians and to produce disgusting movies like Shark's Tale that teach our children that Italians and Sicilians are brutal and ruthless.  Sweet Lemons...will do more than has been so far done to change the distorted image of Sicilians projected by the insensitive media.  I recommend everyone contact Delia or Venera as to how to go about ordering a copy from Legas the publisher of worthwhile literary works.