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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, August 7, 2015 | 24 Award-winning poet to release fifth collection by John Bkila Oakville Beaver Staff Artscene "Connected to your Community" To say words are award-winning poet Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews' passion may be an understatement. The Italian-born, now Oakville resident has published four collections of poetry, two non-fiction books, and will be releasing her fifth poetry compilation, A Jar of Fireflies, Sept. 15. The collection features writing about the natural world as a spiritual experience. Having moved to Oakville from Italy at age 13, Di SciascioAndrews said she remembers writing her first poem after an English class at the now-closed Gordon E. Perdue High School. Her class had just finished watching a film that featured a song with the lyrics, "for everything there is a reason... a time to be born... a time to die." "I was so moved, I went home and wrote a poem... I was driven to write by a compulsion to make sense of what I felt deeply, but could not articulate," she explained. "My first works were cathartic, passionate and embraced big themes like time, infinity and the paradox of human suffering." Having studied at the University of Toronto and Harvard University, Di Sciascio-Andrews has won numerous awards for her works, including the Arborealis Anthology prize, Winsome Words Anthology first-prize winner and the Ontario Poetry Society Ultra Short Poem Contest. She is now a French and drama teacher for the Halton District School Board. "Now, after many years of graduate courses, writing and critiquing workshops, I can say that my love of words, combined with a deep sensitivity, have brought me to write poetry as a means of (bringing together) the often irreconcilable pieces of my reality into a comprehensible whole," she said. Di Sciascio-Andrews credits her true start with writing and publishing poetry after winning a contest in 2004 for her poem At far left, Oakville poet Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews is publishing her fifth poetry compilation, A Jar of Fireflies (cover at left), Sept. 15. The collection features writings about the natural world as a spiritual experience. In addition to previously publishing four collections of poetry, Di Sciascio-Andrews has also authored two nonfiction books. | submitted photos Sea Glass, which would later become the title of her first collection. Her other compilations include: The Whispers of Stones, The Red Accordion and Letters from the Singularity. Her non-fiction works are: How the Italians Created Canada (published by Dragon Hill Press) and In the Name of Hockey (Friesen Press). The former is a historical documentation of Italian immigration and contribution to the Canadian cultural landscape, while the latter takes a closer look at emotional abuse in children's sports. After taking a break from writing to focus on her career, marriage and raising her children, Di Sciascio-Andrews said she felt, without poetry, she had lost a part of herself. "It wasn't until one day... at one of my son's soccer tournaments, while he was playing in the rain and mud, that I grabbed a notepad in the car and started writing, out of compulsion, as if some part of me was suddenly taken over...," she said. "What poured out of me that day was almost like automatic writing. It was the poet in me, the real me re-surfacing to make itself heard." Over her career in poetry, Di Sciascio-Andrews has been twice nominated for the Oakville Arts Council Literary Award. She is a member of the League of Canadian Poets and currently the manager of the Oakville Branch of The Ontario Poetry Society (of which she is also a member). The group meets on the last Wednesday of every month, from 7-8 p.m. at Aroma Espresso Bar in downtown Oakville. She runs poetry programs at local schools and judges poetry contests. This year, Di Sciascio-Andrews was also nominated to be inducted in Toronto's Heliconian Club for women in the arts and letters -- the club was founded in 1909. Other accolades for the Oakville poet include: being nominated for The Malahat Review's Open Seasons poetry award and Winston Collins/Descant Prize for Best Canadian Poem. For more arts news, visit insidehalton.com/oakville-on C O N C E R T S B Y T H E L A K E AIRE ONE MADNEss sAlE! $700 OFF HI-EFFICIENCY CENTRAL AIR $ 29 /mTH OAC* IN O.P.A. REbATE $400 uP TO NOW $ 1990 *Call for details Was $ 2690 DON'T PAY until 2016!* * HI-EffICIENCy AIR CONDITIONERS · Free Installation · 10 Year Factory Warranty CALL NOW, QUANTITIES ARE LIMITED! 9 Locations to serve you better Heating & Cooling www.aireone.com A+ RATING 905-849-4998 1-888-827-2665 Local residents have one more chance this season to catch Oakville Wind Orchestra's Concerts by the Lake summer series, which ends Tuesday (Aug. 11). The free evening of music is held at Coronation Park, 1426 Lakeshore Rd. W., at 7 p.m. Clockwise, from top left: Jack Vanderhorst and his son Liam, 2, watch the orchestra, conducted by Musical Director Chris Arthurs, play during a July concert. | photos by Justin Greaves ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog)