Osvaldo Zappa of West Vancouver was one of four B.C. authors who participated in readings from Beyond Barbed Wire (Guernica, 2012), an anthology on the internment of Italian Canadians during World War II in concert with the Association of Italian Canadian Writers (AICW). The anthology and its predecessor, Behind Barbed Wire, are distributed for free because they are published with a grant from Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration as a Community Historical Recognition Project.

Osvaldo Zappa was born in Italy and graduated from the Istituto Tecnico (Geometri) in Sulmona in 1956. That same year he immigrated to Canada to join his family in Vancouver. While working at several jobs he attended many English language and engineering courses at night schools. In 1962 he enrolled in Engineering at UBC. He left university to work in the forest industry until his retirement in 2000.

In 2010, Zappa published his book of memoirs "Giovanni's Journey." He has also written articles on Marco Polo and is keen on Opera Lirica and the theater.

[BCBW 2012] "Italian"