Frank G. Paci

Frank G. Paci is an Italian-Canadian novelist and former teacher who lives in the Toronto area. He has published 13 books under the name F.G. Paci.

Biography He was born in Pesaro, Italy, 1948, and immigrated to Canada with his parents in 1952 where they settled down in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. His education includes a B.A. in English and B.Ed. from the University of Toronto. His first novel, The Italians, which appeared in 1978 became a Canadian bestseller and was shortlisted for the Books in Canada First Novel Award in 1979. His books focus on Canadian-Italian characters, issues of identity and creativity. He helped create the phenomenon of Canadian-Italian literature. The collected of essays described each of his novels and gives brief details on his background and style of writing. In a book review called "Italian Identity" author Giovanni Bonanno describes, "Part of Paci's success in the novel lies in his ability to manoeuver the reader's sympathies for certain characters and for what they stand for". He also states Paci's way of describing Italy throughout The Father is very well done. Paci's work focuses on Italian immigrant families in Northern Ontario. Frank Paci has demonstrated a sustained commitment to his art and a determination both to enunciate his own history and to provide a voice for those around him so often characterized by silence. In so doing, he has enriched the fabric of our national literature and mapped out and testified to a previously unexpressed dimension of the culture of Sault Ste. Marie. In 1984 he was invited to Rome for the first conference on Italian-Canadian writing and history.

In 1988–1989 he became the first writer to hold the Mariano A. Elia Chair in Italian-Canadian Studies at York University. Paci is currently married, has a son and lives in Mississauga, Ontario where he retired from teaching in 2008.