Joseph Pivato

He was born Giuseppe Pivato in Tezze sul Brenta (Stroppari), a town about 40 km north of Venice, Italy.

(Combined Honours, English and French) from York and moved to Edmonton to study Comparative Literature at the University of Alberta.

He was founding president of the Association of Italian-Canadian Writers (1986) which advances the work of these ethnic minority authors through critical publications, biennial conferences and book launches.

In 2021 Emma Pivato published And along came Alexis a powerful memoir of life with a severely disabled daughter (Guernica Editions).

As a literature which exists in three languages: English, French and Italian, it lends itself to discussions on translation, influences, ethnic identity, migration and appropriation.

His discovery began in 1978 when his poems were included in Roman Candles, the first anthology of Italian-Canadian poets edited by Pier Giorgio DiCicco.

This fellowship was at the invitation of Prof. Robert F. Harney, Academic Director (1976–89) of the Multicultual History Society of Ontario at U.of T. In Toronto he edited his first book, Contrasts: Comparative Essays on Italian-Canadian Writing (1985) which became a seminal volume for the promotion of ethnic minority literature in Canada.

The major volume Pivato edited was The Anthology of Italian-Canadian Writing (1998) which included 53 authors working in English, French or Italian and which has been used as a text in many college and university courses.

Among the authors included are F.G. Paci, Linda Hutcheon, Nino Ricci, Pasquale Verdicchio, Mary di Michele, and Marco Micone.

Pivato has been a visiting speaker and researcher at the University of Udine several times and at their Centro di Cultura Canadese founded by Prof. Anna Pia De Luca.

By 2022 the series had reached an impressive 56 volumes, each a monograph on a Canadian author including: Sheila Watson, Sharon Pollock, Caterina Edwards, Aritha Van Herk, Gail Scott, Robert Kroetsch, David Adams Richards, Nicole Brossard, Margaret Atwood, Anne Hébert, Gary Geddes, Joy Kogawa, Mary di Michele, Dany Laferriere, Roy Kiyooka and Jack Hodgins.

Each is edited by a prominent academic such as Lianne Moyes, Anne Nothof, Louise H. Forsyth, Monique Tschofen, Christl Verduyn, Nicole Markotic, Jolene Armstrong and Sheena L. Wilson.

He edited the critical anthology, Africadian Atlantic: Essays on George Elliott Clarke (2012), the first book devoted to this important African-Canadian author.

At the Athabasca University site AUSPACE for faculty research Pivato has posted 21 of his recently published essays in Comparative Literature.