Mary di Michele

Mary di Michele (born 6 August 1949) is an Italian-Canadian poet and author. She was a professor at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, where she taught creative writing until 2015.

Early life and education di Michele was born in Lanciano, Italy. She immigrated to Toronto, Ontario with her family in 1955. She obtained an Honours B.A. in English Literature at the University of Toronto in 1972. Later, she completed an M.A. in English and creative writing at the University of Windsor in 1974.

Career di Michele published her first book of poetry, Tree of August, in 1978. She traveled to Chile in 1987 as part of a literary cultural exchange. In 1990, she became a professor of English at Concordia University. She continued to write and publish poetry, and in 2005 released a second novel, Tenor of Love.

In 2011, di Michele released The Flower of Youth: Pier Paolo Pasolini Poems which returns to the terror of WWII in Italy and the experiences of her family before she was born. It anticipates her next book of poetry on the post-war years, Bicycle Thieves in 2017.

In 2007, Guernica Editions published Mary di Michele: Essays on Her Works, edited by Joseph Pivato, which includes studies by ten literary critics and indicates the high regard for her literary production. In 2024, her works are held in more than 1,400 libraries.

Works Tree of August – 1978 Bread and Chocolate – 1980 Mimosa and Other Poems – 1981 Necessary Sugar – 1984 Anything is Possible: A Selection of Eleven Women Poets (editor) – 1984 Immune to Gravity – 1986 Under My Skin (novel) – 1994 Luminous Emergencies – 1990 Stranger in You: Selected Poems and New – 1995 Debriefing the Rose – 1998 Tenor of Love (novel) – 2005 The Flower of Youth: Pier Paolo Pasolini Poems – 2011 Bicycle Thieves poems – 2017 Montreal Book of the Dead poetry chapbook – 2020