Salvatore Difalco

Sicilian Canadian poet and storyteller Salvatore Difalco currently lives in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of five books, including The Mountie at Niagara Falls (Anvil Press) a collection of illustrated microfiction. His short fiction and poetry has appeared in many online and print journals including Cafe Irreal, Third Wednesday, and RHINO Poetry. He is a regular contributor to Panoramitalia, an Italian Canadian lifestyle and culture magazine. He also writes and edits publications for the ICCO (Italian Chamber of Commerce) in Toronto. 

My first language is Italian—check that, Sicilian—but I think and write primarily in English. Indeed, I have been writing for many years, in many formats, forms and genres. American, British and International markets have proven far friendlier and receptive to my work than Canadian publications, but that’s okay. I get around.

I’m essentially starting from scratch each time I sit down to write. I mean, starting from absolute zero. This is good and bad. I have no status whatsoever as a writer so I’m not bound by any expectations. This is good. But I never know what aspect of my work is acceptable or regrettable and that can make it difficult to negotiate the sharp corners and rebar-reinforced concrete walls of the publishing world that I keep encountering. On the other hand, I feel an almost unlimited and exhilarating degree of freedom to write what I want to write and when I want to write, whatever the results. 

I studied Classics and Irish literature in university. I’ve been deep in the Beckett woods and smoked some fabulous Flann O’Brien during that run. But Joyce is always there with his priests and Celtic sibilance. Deep into Wallace Stevens for a time and then John Ashbery and then Philip Larkin to smooth it all out. Been reading a lot of D. Nurkse lately and I like him. His parents were immigrants like mine, so we share some leanings. 

I read anything and everything except anything pertaining to politics or quantum physics, which I find exhausting and malnourishing. I have very little social media presence by choice since my hair-trigger temper will only tolerate so much nonsense.

Lately I’ve been writing a lot of stories about puppets, which fascinate me on many levels. And I’ve been writing poems like those featured in Poetry Lighthouse, and some a little crazier and some a little more sedate, always searching for the perfect line, image, rhythm, and music. Often failing, but always trying. Like I said, I get around.