BY ROSANNA BATTIGELLI
Once upon a time, long, long ago, a meteorite struck the Earth,
its impact forming what is now known as the Sudbury Basin.
In 1990, author Nino Ricci made a similar impact on the
literary landscape of Canada with his first novel Lives of the
Saints.
Not only did his novel leave a giant impression on the Canadian
literature scene, winning the Governor General's Award and the
W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award, it created an
impact around the world.
Ricci's stellar accomplishments are the stuff of which writers'
dreams are made. This past weekend, some of the members of the
Sudbury Writers' Guild took part in a two-session workshop that
Ricci conducted in Sudbury, at the invitation of the guild.
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Lifes of the Saints was published in more than a dozen
countries, garnering additional awards such as the Betty Trask
Award and the Winnifred Holtby Prize in England, and the Prise
Contrepoint Madrineaux in France. 
Lives of the Saints was the first book of a trilogy that
followed the journey of young Vittorio Innocente from his
native Italy to Canada. The next two books in the trilogy, In a
Glass House, and Where She Has Gone, expounded the immigrant
experience, with the latter gaining a nomination for the Giller
Prize.
Ricci's fourth novel continued the earthshaking tradition of
his previous work. Testament was Ricci's treatment of the
personage of Jesus in its double sense as a historical figure
and a mythical one. Testament was co-winner of the Trillium
Award and was short listed for many other awards.
Last Friday evening, the group of 17 writers heard Ricci speak
of his own writing journey, which held roadblocks and
rejections from the onset.
In fact, while taking a course in creative writing at York
University, his instructor, famed author W.O. Mitchell advised
the young Ricci to drop the course and consider another field
of study.
Lives of the Saints was rejected by all the major Canadian
publishers. In 1990, it was published by a smaller press,
Cormorant Books, and the rest is history.
The second part of the workshop, which was held  Saturday,
was a critiquing session. The writers submitted a five- to
15-page excerpt of their writing to Ricci and the rest of the
participants prior to the workshop.
Everyone received feedback from the group members and Ricci,
who gave many insights into the fiction-writing process and the
elements of good fiction, such as character development, simple
description, point of view, pacing, effective dialogue and
structural balance. 
Ricci spoke of fiction as a dream.  He said that as a
writer, you bring your reader into this dream world and
everything you do is to keep them in this world.
If you do something jarring in your writing, such as a clumsy
point of view change, you lose your reader. They wake up and
leave your world.
Ricci's writing has been praised as haunting, lyrical,
intelligent and soulful.
One member of the Sudbury Writers' Guild summarized the
sentiments of the workshop participants with the comment: "No
matter where we are on our writing journey, Nino Ricci's
insights and expertise benefitted us all."
Rosanna Battigelli is a Sudbury teacher, published writer and a charter member of the SudburyWriters' Guild.
