Biography
Anna Ciardullo Villapiana was born in the beautiful southern Italian city named Cosenza in 1973, and lived there for about thirty years. She always felt passionate about poetry as a teenager; back then, in a secret diary, she used to poeticize her feelings, her thoughts and her days. Later on, when Anna finished high school, she enrolled in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Calabria, and graduated in 2000 with a Modern Literature degree.
She loved to read and study poets and writers and found it fascinating to experience the beautiful worlds of words and imagination that they held in their work. Anna feels it is priceless being able to communicate and establish a dialogue with the inner part of oneself, as well as with nature, and being able to put all of this in melodious verse. Convinced as she was of the healing power of poetry, of art and faith, in a mechanical world, she has never stopped writing.
In 2002 Anna participated in the first Edition of the Crati Literary Award, and was one of the finalists. In the meantime, people would contact her to write epigraphs, articles and poems for various occasions.
In 2003 she moved to Canada where she married her husband Rob, had two children and started her career as a translator and an Italian language teacher.
It was here that Anna published her first collection of poems “Inner Paths” in 2007, and later “Fragments of Light” in 2015. The latest volume was illustrated by her dearest friend and artist, Carina Francioso. She captured the essence of Anna’s verse with both her brush and with the English translations of her poems.
During Anna’s journey she was supported Gabriel Niccoli, professor of Comparative Literature and Italian Studies at St. Jerome’s University/University of Waterloo, who wrote not only the introduction for both volumes, but also an essay on Anna’s poetry titled “The Transformative Power of Poetry: an Emerging Voice on the Italian-Canadian Landscape” published in “Studies in Honour of Guido Pugliese” edited by Anthony Mollica, Soleil edition, 2015.
As well, she was supported by Antonio D’Elia, professor of Italian Literature and Theatrical Literature at the University of Basilicata who wrote the Afterword for the first volume and the Preface for the second.
They both gifted the readers with interesting starting points and a detailed critique that goes beyond the verse, searching for deeper meanings.
In 2018 some of Anna Ciardullo Villapiana’s poems have been published in the anthologies: “People Places Passages, An Anthology of Canadian Writing”, edited by Giulia De Gasperi, Delia De Santis, Caroline Morgan Di Giovanni, Longbridge Books, and Acufene edited di I.v.a.n. project, Limina Mentis.
In 2019 she has been awarded with a mention of Honour for “On the Trace of a Desire” a poem that will later be part of the anthology “Premio Nazionale di Poesia e Narrativa Comune di Genazzano” edited by Paola Bosca for the Cultural Association I Rumori dell’Anima in Rome. Later Anna’s poems were included in the volume “Il Grido dell’anima” of the same publisher.
Member of AICW (Association of Italian Canadian Writers) she participates in initiatives for the conservation of Italian language and heritage in the multicultural Canadian culture.
Two of her poems, The Ascent and On the Trace of a Desire were published in Accenti Magazine. The Ascent was also pubblished in Braided Way Magazine and other poems appeared in other publications and magazines.
In September 2017 Anna participated to the ICAP (Italian Canadian Archives Project) conference presenting “Fragments of Light” as a contribution of art and poetry to the Italian cultural heritage’s preservation in Canada. Later she became co-chair of the ICAP committee in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge area.
In September 2018 she published “Al di là del mare, Dialoghi DiVersi,”, I Rumori dell’Anima edition, Rome. A volume of poems illustrated by the artist Carina Francioso, translated in English by Brian Escobar and Maria Natalia Orangis, with introduction by writer Bruna Cicala. The volume was presented and handed to the hands of Pope Francis.
Several poems of her latest collection have been read and interpreted by the voice and music of Italian poet and songwriter Gianluca Lalli in a CD that accompanies the book.
Anna currently lives in Kitchener, Ontario, where she keeps teaching Italian language and is working on her fourth collection of poems while cooperating with artists like Juneyt, Ilio Volante, Carina Francioso among others for the organizations of events of music, art and poetry.
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