Rosanna Micelotta Battigelli immigrated to Sudbury, Ontario, Canada with her family at three years of age. During her teaching career, she received four OECTA (Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association) Best Practice Awards for her unique strategies in early literacy and other initiatives. Rosanna is a professional member of the Writers’ Union of Canada, the Canadian Authors Association, the Association of Italian-Canadian Writers, and CANSCAIP. An alumna of the Humber School for Writers, she has been published in eighteen anthologies and journals. She lives in Sudbury and has also done readings in Toronto, Sault Ste. Marie, Manitoulin Island, Montreal, Vancouver, New York City, and Italy. Rosanna’s novel La Brigantessa (Inanna Publications & Education, Inc., 2018) was awarded Gold for Historical Fiction in the 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY Awards) and she received her gold medal at the IPPY Awards in New York City in May 2018. La Brigantessa was a finalist for the 2019 Canadian Authors Association Fred Kerner Book Award and the 2019 Northern Lit Award. It won a 2019 International Book Award for Best Cover Design, and The Miramichi Reader’s “The Very Best!” Book Award in 2019 for Best Cover Art (designed by Val Fullard). In June, 2019, Rosanna read at a CAIS (Canadian Society for Italian Studies) Conference in Orvieto, Italy. Inanna Press - Link Book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmc4f0_Drsk

Rosanna’s children’s book (Pumpkin Orange, Pumpkin Round) was published by Pajama Press (September 2019), and reissued in a second format in 2020. It was a 2020 Bank Street Best Book winner. Pumpkin Orange Pumpkin Round at Pajama Press

In October 2019, Rosanna was one of the four authors featured at the Parry Sound Festival of Authors. She did a reading there from La Brigantessa. Among other projects, Rosanna edited the book Tales of a West-End Italian Boy, by Nic Battigelli, released in 2019. Rosanna has also had five books published with Harlequin UK (two in 2018, 2020, two in 2021). Her fiction collection Pigeon Soup & Other Stories was released by Inanna Publications in June 2021. Rosanna’s second children’s book, Easter Morning, Easter Sun, was released in March 2021 by Pajama Press.

In early 2020, Rosanna was a guest speaker at a CFUW (Canadian Federation of University Women) meeting. During the pandemic, Rosanna has been guest author at online book club meetings, as well as at online events by Word Up Barrie, North Bay’s Conspiracy of Three, and Toronto’s Writers & Editors Network. She has also been revising a previous novel, working on a collection of narrative non-fiction, and is starting to contemplate research for a second historical novel.