I haven’t been here in a while, but I thought I’d better drop in and announce my new book Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers is now available everywhere you find books. Even more exciting: I will be launching Driven in the company of Mayor Naheed Nenshi on Thursday May 13th. Please join us. […]
Pandemic Sex Work
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I’ve been wanting to write about sex work for a long time, and a chapter of my upcoming book about taxi drivers will focus on the cabbie/sex worker relationship. In the meantime, though, here is a story I wrote for The Sprawl about how Calgary’s sex workers are managing the pandemic. I loved, loved, loved […]
Workshops for the Bored and Isolated
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Hey all. I am doing a couple of socially-distant micro-classes for the Alexandra Writers Centre: Getting to Know You: A Profile Writing Workshop MARCH 26, 2020 10AM-12PM MEMBER PRICE: $30 NON-MEMBER PRICE: $30 The world is full of characters waiting for an author. In this workshop, participants will examine how to get to the heart of other people’s […]
A Land Acknowledgment for Eurovision
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Nearly every public event in Canada is preceded by a “land acknowledgment.” A host or organizer will publicly and verbally recognize the specific Indigenous people on whose traditional territory the event is being held. In my city of Calgary, for example, the host will say something like: We wish to acknowledge that we are on […]
January
19
Ofelia Rivas, the Tohono O’odham, and the Wall
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Considering all that is going on on the United States these days, I figure now might be a good time to post something from Walls: Travels Along the Barricades. I’ve chosen this section about where the US-Mexico border divides the traditional territory of the Tohono O’odham people. Ofelia Rivas was generous with her stories, and I […]
January
08
Looking For Home in the Palestinian Diaspora
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
In my original plan for Pay No Heed to the Rockets I was going to include a chapter about Palestinian authors in the diaspora. I decided, in the end, to focus on Palestinians still living in historical Palestine. My interest in diaspora writers did not diminish, however, and I am fascinated by what Palestinians living […]
January
08
US Cover
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
(Alas, I’ve neglected this blog for a while.) Here is the cover of the US edition of Pay No Heed to the Rockets. The folks at Counterpoint did a fantastic job with this cover. It is my favourite of the three editions – though I suspect I am not supposed to say that.
Bringing *Pay No Heed* back to Palestine
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
This is very exciting. At the beginning of next month, I will participate in the Kalimat Palestine Writers’ Festival. I will be among 14 authors – 10 Palestinian, 4 “international” – who will be holding book readings and discussions in Jerusalem, Haifa, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Nablus. Four of the Palestinian authors involved in this traveling […]
June
18
To love a person, a place, and a thing.
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I rarely get nostalgic about objects. I have very few “things” that are precious to me. There is, though, an old blue backpack. I bought my Serratus Andromeda from MEC in 1997 and spent a year heaving the pack around Western Africa. My year in Africa was my first big journey abroad. It was the […]
Pay No Heed in Ontario
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Friends in Toronto, Windsor, Hamilton and Ottawa please note: I will be bringing the new book back on the road to you next week. Here is a list of my events. Come if you can. Pay No Heed to the Rockets will be part of a dual book-launch with Nahla Abdo’s An Oral History of […]
Elsewhere 