Born in Italy, Maria Montuori Caltabiano immigrated to Canada with her parents and siblings in 1961. She holds degrees in English Literature, Journalism, and Public Relations from Concordia University, and has worked as a teacher, magazine editor, news and weather person for Tele Italia Montreal, and journalist for CBC Radio Canada International. In her early teens, she began keeping journals and now has over twenty which hold insights and poems-in-the-rough that she hopes to carve out and polish with the help of a more mature and seasoned perspective on life. Drawing Daybreak is Maria’s first collection of poems, the fulfillment of a childhood dream she shared with her husband before he succumbed to cancer. Her poetry has appeared in various literary publications, such as Devour: Art and Lit Canada; League of Canadian Poets, Poetry Pause; Literature for the People, and many others. Her long poem “Il Nibbio” was published in the anthology Celebrating Calabria: Writing Heritage and Memory, edited by award-winning American poet Maria Mazziotti Gillan and University of Calabria professor, Margherita Ganeri (Rubettino, 2020). Although poetry is her first love, Maria also enjoys painting and music. She lives in Montreal with her family, and when she’s not writing poetry, she helps her 89-year-old father run the family restaurant, now celebrating sixty years in business.
Maria Caltabiano
