As I’ve mentioned previously, The Calgary Public Library has selected Walls: Travels Along the Barricades as their 2014 ‘One Book One Calgary’ selection. The OBOC program launches on Saturday November 1st at the Central library downtown with an event dubbed, ominously, “An Evening with Marcello Di Cintio.” Since the book came out back in 2012, […]
October
09
Song of the Caged Bird – an excerpt
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Hazlitt Originals, the digital imprint of Penguin Random House who published my book Song of the Caged Bird: Words as Resistance in Palestine, have posted a couple of excerpts from the book on their website. Read them here.
October
02
Song of the Caged Bird
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Next week, my digital book Song of the Caged Bird: Words as Resistance in Palestine will be released and available for download. Thanks to the editors and designers at Hazlitt for putting together such a handsome ebook. For more about Song of the Caged Bird, see my dedicated blog page. I also started a Facebook […]
September
26
The Long Journey of Nathan Phelps
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
On the stroke of midnight on his 18th birthday, Nathan Phelps left the abuse and tyranny of his father’s Westboro Baptist Church. Phelps’ journey from the WBC’s venomous preaching eventually led him away from God altogether. Now Phelps is an avowed and vocal atheist, and an advocate for gay rights. He is also a Calgarian. […]
September
02
Iceland II: The Hanging Out with Writers Edition
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Looks like I’ll be returning to Iceland, erupting volcanoes notwithstanding. Next spring, I will be a featured instructor at the Iceland Writers Retreat. I’ll join an international handful of writers – including Barbara Kingslover, Adam Gopnik, Ruth Reichl and fellow Canadians John Valiant and Alison Pick – in Reykjavic for a four-day program of workshops […]
August
29
Optical Illusionists
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
My story about artificial eyes and the men and women who craft then appears in the current issue of Swerve Magazine. I can’t remember a magazine story I enjoyed researching as much as this one. I never would’ve guessed that the making of artificial eyes, or ‘ocularistry’, had such a fascinating history or that it […]
August
26
One Book, One Calgary
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I am pleased, and surprised, to announce that the Calgary Public Library has chosen Walls: Travels Along the Barricades as their 2014 ‘One Book, One Calgary’ selection. According to the OBOC website, the program is “designed to ignite community dialogue and enrich community connections through a shared reading experience.” I’m pretty sure this means that […]
August
24
An Elegy to St. Andrew’s
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
While it has been several decades since I believed in the religion practiced within its walls, I couldn’t help but feel sad when I heard that Calgary’s former Italian church was up for sale. I wrote a short piece about the old church, and my family’s relationship to it, that appears in Swerve Magazine. The story […]
“Gaza,” by Hala Alyan
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
A couple of years ago I had the great pleasure and honour of reading with Hala Alyan at an event in Ramallah. As a three-day truce between the IDF and Hamas is holding, and as Israeli ground forces leave the Strip, I hope – beyond all reason – that Hala’s words are the last I […]
June
09
Attention Bulgarians!
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I knew something was up when Bulgarian reviews of Walls started appearing on my Goodreads page. Sure enough, the Bulgarian translation has been released. This is the first time one of my books has been translated and I’m enjoying the novelty of not being able to read my own work. As it turns out, Bulgaria […]
