AO6 Castaways and Other Writings, 1996—2024 by Diego Bastianutti

A prize-winning poet, writer, artist, teacher, and thinker, Diego

Bastianutti is also a keen observer and subtle critic of the world

around us. From the perspective of his own experience as a child

refugee from Fiume (Rijeka), a teen-aged displaced person (D.P.)

in Italy, an adult immigrant in the USA, and now a retired

professor, prize-winning poet, and part-time artist in Canada,

Bastianutti shares with us his memories of a lost motherland, his

insights into the world around us, his views on the creative

process, and his imagined stories about God, Adam and Eve, and

more.

The works in this collection speak about physical and

spiritual diaspora, the traumas brought about by war, exile,

emigration, immigration, integration, and the constant pressure of

externally imposed readjustments. In so doing, they offer us an

insight into a complex individual, an injured diasporic commu-

nity, and the world around us.

Advance Praise:

Bastianutti’s writings and creative works stir the soul and capture

extraordinary experiences through his unique lens! Congratula-

tions for this untiring commitment not only to the history, culture,

and diaspora of the Julian-Dalmatian population, but also to the

human condition and its challenges. An inspirational collection!

Gabriella Colussi Arthur, York University

At a moment when there are over 120 million refugees or forcibly

displaced persons in the world amid rising hostility to migrants,

Diego Bastianutti’s poignant recollections of his own war-disrupt-

ed childhood and life-long exile, complemented by his essays on

the history, causes, and consequences of forced migration, make

timely and compelling reading.

Ann Pearson, author of A Promise on the Horizo

Diego Bastianutti has published seven collections of poetry in

Italian and English and the award-winning translation of a major

selection of Giuseppe Ungaretti’s works. He is the winner of the

2008 International Literary Prize Umberto Saba (Trieste) and was

a finalist for the F.G. Bressani Literary Prize (2009) awarded by

the Italian Cultural Centre in Vancouver.