The Gallery of Human Migration Literary Award celebrates the enduring power of migration stories.
The 2025 inaugural edition is in tribute to two lives, Danny Montesano, founder of Lido Construction, and his wife, Madeleine Brazeau.
The Award uplifts narratives that reflect resilience, transformation, and the deeply human experience of movement and belonging.
A full professor, Roberto Perin obtained his doctorate in history from the University of Ottawa. He has taught at the Universities of Edinburg and York and was director of the Canadian Academic Centre in Italy (Rome). A specialist of immigration, he was vice-president of the Italian committee of the Community Historical Recognition Programme, established by the federal government, and historical consultant for the exhibitions at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. An expert as well in Canadian religious history, he has often been a commentator for Radio Canada on questions involving immigration, cultural and religious diversity, as well as reasonable accommodation.
Ian Martin is an anglophone Settler, born and raised in Toronto. Graduated with an MA degree in Russian Literature and an ABD in Russian Linguistics from the University of Toronto. He has been a member of the English Department at the College universitaire Glendon College, York University, in Toronto since 1975, where he has taught English as a Second Language, Language Learning, Language Policy and EIL Methodology. In the 1990s, he created the Certificate in the Discipline of the Teaching of English as an International Language (Cert D-TEIL) and coordinated it until 2020. He has taught English in Greece, Italy, China, Singapore and Cuba and has written and co-written numerous articles on ELT, including a book (1992) An Invitation to Explore ESP (RELC Singapore). He has been involved in the revitalization of Indigenous languages, especially in Ontario and Nunavut, where his policy paper on English-Inuktitut bilingual education Aajiiqatigiingniq (Nunavut Dept of Education, 2001) helped produce a framework for Nunavut’s bilingual education policy. He co-edited, with Brian Morgan and Ruberval Maciel. His main project today is co-editing a book with Amos Key Jr. on Canada’s Indigenous Languages Policy.
John Lorinc is a Toronto journalist and editor. He writes about cities, housing, climate and technology for various media, including The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Corporate Knights and Spacing, where he is senior editor. John is the author of five books, including No Jews Live Here: A Memoir (Coach House Books, 2024) and the recipient of the 2023 Writer’s Trust Balsillie Aware for Public Policy, for Dream States: Smart Cities, Technology and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias. He has also edited or co-edited seven anthologies published as part of Coach House Books’ uTOpia series, including The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto’s First Immigrant Neighbourhood (2015).
Sun-Kyung (Sunny) Yi is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, and educator whose work, shaped by her Korean-Canadian identity, explores themes of immigration, multiculturalism, and belonging. She holds an M.A. in History (focused on Canadian immigration history). She has contributed many hours of radio documentaries for CBC’s IDEAS, and her award-winning documentary films have been broadcast worldwide She is the founder of the Documentary Filmmaking Institute at Seneca Polytechnic, where she is Professor and Program Coordinator.
Susana P. Miranda is the co-author of Cleaning Up: Portuguese Women’s Fight for Labour Rights in Toronto (Toronto: Between the Lines Press, 2023) with Franca Iacovetta, which won the Leo Panitch Book Prize (Canadian labour history), the Alison Prentice Award for Canadian Women’s History, the Mayworks Labour Arts Award, and was short-listed for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario Speaker’s Book Award, 2023. Susana co-founded the Portuguese-Canadian History Project in 2008, which aims to preserve, digitize and provide access to historical materials that are vital for understanding the contributions of the Portuguese community in Canada. She currently works for the Ontario Ministry of Education.
The 2025 Gallery of Human Migration Literary Awardis the first formal recognition of the artistic expression of the migration experience offered by the Gallery of Human Migration.
It was created to honour individuals who tell their migration story through writing, offering new insight into the emotional, social, and cultural realities of relocation. The award is named in memory of two individuals whose lives and legacies embody courage, empathy, and the pursuit of meaningful connection across communities.
The sculptural award, created by artist Ester Crocetta, reflects this vision:
“This sculptural piece embodies the essence of migration through its fluid yet fragmented form. Cast in a luminous white material, it suggests both resilience and transformation, evoking the journey of individuals, both physical and metaphysical. This piece is not just an award; it is a symbol of the ever-evolving narrative of migration.”
Our motto “I’M MIGRATION” is also a play on words.
On one hand, it means “I am Migration.” On the other hand, if you drop the apostrophe, it becomes IMMIGRATION—“the process of moving to.”
The Gallery’s mission is to recover and celebrate the positive value and transformative power of migration in reshaping people, cultures, and territories. We don’t focus on immigration or emigration as fixed categories. Instead, it speaks of movement, the essence of the migratory process. We don’t frame migration by ethnicity or historical periods, but by its universality: migration is the eternal movement at the core of human nature. Movement is the act of being born, of coming into the world. Movement is the creative spark that generates an idea. Each of us, therefore, carries a migration story to tell—woven from dreams, departure, acceptance, and belonging.
Migration is more than the physical act of moving or the structures that make it possible. Migration reflects the dynamic relationship between our human experience and the environment, where the interplay of emotions and memories shapes our connection both to the places we leave behind and those we come to call home.
Migration is a human right, an inseparable part of human nature, and multiculturalism is the natural outcome of this creative and transformative force.
The Gallery of Human Migration Literary Award was born from this vision. By honouring migration stories, the award recognizes not only the courage of movement but also the creativity, resilience, and sense of belonging that emerge from it—values that the Gallery believes lie at the very heart of our shared humanity.
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Your story of migration, the one inherited, lived, and witnessed across generations, has a place here. The Tapestry, the 2026 edition of the Gallery’s Migration Literary Award, is an international recognition and publication initiative honouring personal and ancestral stories. Every selected voice is honoured equally. No rankings, no podium. Submissions open March 31 and close August 31, 2026.
