Anthony (Nino) Fama (BA ’70) will never forget the moment he arrived at Brock in 1966 when Professor and Registrar Ernest Goldsmith held the door open for him and greeted him kindly.

“I still remember his radiant smile and contagious optimism — I knew I had found the place I wanted to be,” he said.

Fama, who recently received the Faculty of Humanities Distinguished Graduate Award during Brock’s 2024 Homecoming celebrations, said his experience at Brock built the foundation for the rest of his life and career.

“Being at Brock was like being with family. It didn’t take long to make friends and meet people, including my future wife Mary Lariccia, a fellow Brock student. Fifty-two years on, we are still happily married with three beautiful daughters,” said Fama, who hails from Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto in Italy.

In 1970, Fama graduated with an honour’s degree from Brock’s Department of Modern Languages – now the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures – with a specialization in French and Spanish.

Since then, he has accomplished much in his illustrious career as an academic and author, sharing his complex thoughts and ideas with his students and the world.

After completing his undergraduate studies, Fama pursued a master’s degree at University of Western Ontario and subsequent PhD in Latin American studies at the University of New York at Buffalo.

“I had always been intrigued by the history and literature of Latin America, notably the stories of Indigenous people. During the time I was undertaking my studies, Spanish American writers were setting the pace for the world in terms of writing style, and I was hooked,” Fama said.

During his 24-year teaching career at University of Waterloo, where he is Professor Emeritus, Fama was well-known for inspiring a passion for literature in his students and making prolific scholarly contributions to the world of literary studies.

He has published two highly respected books of literary criticism in addition to authoring numerous articles and essays published in scholarly journals in Canada, United States, Europe and Latin America.

In addition to engaging with academic publications, Fama was moved to put pen to paper and explore creative writing.

He continued to cultivate his passion for literature by writing works of fiction in Italian, with some of his short stories being taught in Italian high schools and Canadian university courses.

La Stanza Segreta (The Secret Room), a novel published in 2004, follows a young philosophy student named Nicky on his existential search through time and space tracing his grandfather’s immigration story from Sicily to Canada.

Fama’s 2014 novel L’oceano nel pozzo (The Ocean in the well), published in Italian and translated to English, tells the story of Stefano, a man who abandons his religious vocation to pursue love.

His latest novel, Il sogno di Toloma, was published in 2017.

“I never set out to be a writer, I just wanted to keep my Italian language alive,” Fama said. “The world is changing, and languages give us access to the stories and histories of other countries. This is not something we can lose sight of.”