La Brigantessa
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Friends provided me with helpful research material. Helen and J.P. Mayer gifted me with—among other sources—an article from an actual 1866 issue of Harper’s magazine: “Three Months With Italian Brigands” by Alfred H. Guernsey which prompted me to further research the ordeal of William Moens in his book English Travellers and Italian Brigands: A Narrative of Capture and Captivity. Victoria Salvas contributed research involving Calabrian country life, traditions, and folklore.
I am grateful for the support of my friends and colleagues in the Association of Italian-Canadian Writers, the Canadian Authors Association, and in the Sudbury Writers’ Guild, who have inspired me with their stories, books, and writing journeys. As an executive member of the Calabria Social Club of Sudbury and member of the Società Caruso Club, I have enjoyed the friendship and support of my fellow members in our goal to promote the Calabrese and Italian culture.
I am thankful to Dr. Joseph Pivato, who accepted my very first short story for The Anthology of Italian-Canadian Writing (Toronto: Guernica Editions, Inc., 1998).
I acknowledge the John D. Calandra Italian-American Institute at CUNY (City University of New York) for accepting my proposals in 2008 and 2010 to present a paper at their annual conference. It was there that I met Rossana Del Zio in 2008 and Paola Melone in 2010, both of whom shared useful research information for my novel.
Over the years, I have had the valued support of esteemed Professors of Italian at Laurentian University in Sudbury Diana Iuele-Colilli and the late Paul Colilli, whose encouragement of my writing and invitations to read in their classes and conferences were much appreciated. At one such conference, author Maria Coletta McLean invited me to submit my stories for a collection which was shortly thereafter published as Mamma Mia: Good Italian Girls Talk Back (Toronto: ECW Press, 2004). Maria and editor Joy Gugeler were very supportive and I appreciated their validation. Maria’s memoirs about her little village of Supino are heartwarming and they resonate with readers who wish they, too, could experience life in Italy.
Prolific historical fiction author Mirella Sichirollo Patzer’s beautiful books have inspired me with their captivating characters, settings, and rich story details.
Multi-talented and award-winning actor, writer, and playwright Michaela Di Cesare—whose latest play, Successions, was staged at Montreal’s Centaur Theatre—continues to shine and inspire in her varied and outstanding ventures.
I gratefully acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council for granting me a Writers’ Works in Progress Grant in 2006 for La Brigantessa. This validation from the four-person jury helped boost my resolve to keep researching and writing. The OAC is a vital organization in supporting creators in all artistic fields.
In the same year, multi-award-winning author Nino Ricci’s critique and encouragement of my first chapter during a workshop for the Sudbury Writers’ Guild were especially valued and motivating, helping me to persevere until I completed the novel in 2012. From the time I read Nino’s first book, the internationally acclaimed Lives Of The Saints in 1990, I was captivated by his stellar writing.
Hugely successful author of historical fiction and thrillers, and of Page-Turner: Your Path to Writing a Novel that Publishers Want and Readers Buy, Barbara Kyle evaluated my manuscript in its third draft in 2012. Her insightful suggestions and guidance were invaluable.
Internationally acclaimed and best-selling author Gail Anderson-Dargatz has been an inspiration with her superlative writing and teaching. I participated in her week-long “Writers’ Camp” in Providence Bay, Manitoulin Island, in 2015.
Much gratitude to Joseph Kertes, founder of Humber College’s distinguished creative writing program and multi-award-winning author, whose workshop I attended in Parry Sound in 2014, inspired me to polish my final draft, which I then submitted to Inanna Publications.
And finally, infinite thanks to the amazing and tireless team at Inanna Publications: to outstanding publisher and editor-in-chief Luciana Ricciutelli, publicist extraordinaire Renée Knapp, exceptional copy-editor Adrienne Weiss, and designer Val Fullard for the stunning cover. I have been enjoying Inanna books for years and am very proud to be one of their authors.
Heartfelt thanks to all!
Rosanna Micelotta Battigelli was born in Calabria, Italy, and immigrated to Canada with her family at three years of age. She is an alumna of The Humber School for Writers and her fiction has been published in fifteen anthologies, including A Second Coming: Canadian Migration Fiction (2016), the “Folktales” issue of VIA (Voices in Italian Americana) (2017), 150 Years Up North And More (2018), and People, Places, Passages: An Anthology of Canadian Writing (2018). A collection of short fiction entitled Pigeon Soup and Other Stories is forthcoming from Inanna Publications in 2020. Since retiring from teaching in June 2015, Rosanna is pursuing her literary goals full-time. She lives in Sudbury, Ontario.