From the 'endlessly inventive' mind of one of Canada's greatest poets, comes Dead Men of the Fifties, a rollicking tour through a hopeful, headlong decade filled with jive talkin' jazzmen, the tallest dancer in burlesque, regular folks, movie stars, and TV dogs. Following the success of last year's Trillium Award nominated The Dark Time of Angels, Di Cicco proves once again that his mercurial talent can quickly shift directions and stop on a dime.

Pier Giorgio Di Cicco was born in Arezzo, Italy, and was raised in Baltimore, Montreal, and Toronto. He currently resides in the countryside north of Toronto. He is the author of over thirteen books of poems from 1975 to 1986 including The Tough Romance, Dancing in the House Of Cards, Flying Deeper into the Century, and Virgin Science: Hunting Holistic Paradigms. He withdrew from the world of letters to join a monastery in 1986 and re-emerged in 2001 to publish Living in Paradise Ð New and Selected Poems with Mansfield Press. He has been the Emilio Goggio Visiting Professor in Italian-Canadian Studies at the University of Toronto, and in 2004 he was named as the Poet Laureate for the City of Toronto. Pier Giorgio Di Cicco has extended the role of Poet Laureate beyond the area of arts advocacy and into the realm of Òcivic aesthetic,' a term he coined to define building a city through citizenship, civic ethic and urban psychology. His urban philosophy has found popularity in forums ranging from the Prime Minister's Advisory Committee on Cities and Communities and The Creative Cities Project of the Ontario and Toronto governments, to The Waterfront Revitalization Corporation and international conferences on urban sustainability. He is a Roman Catholic Priest, Curator of the Toronto Museum Project and Center for Global Cities and teaches for the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Toronto.

Pier Giorgio Di Cicco's profile page