Böcker i Via Folios-serien

Cultural Writing. The three essays in this volume originate from a symposium held at Florida Atlantic University, dedicated to the integration of the Advanced Placement exam within the teaching of Italian language and culture. Special emphasis was placed upon Italian-American culture, as shown in the essays included in INTRODUCING ITALIAN AMERICANA: "From the Old Country to the Old Neighborhood: Creating Italian American Literature," by Fred Gardaphe, State University of New York at Stony Brook; "From Italy to the New World: Italian Writers in the United States," by Paolo A Giordano, University of Central Florida; and "Italian Americans and the Movies," by Anthony Julian Tamburri, Queens College/CUNY. Each essay is offered in both English and Italian.

Fiction. Fred Misurella's collection of stories, Lies to Live By, tells the complex, and sometimes secret truth about what it is to be alive in these complicated times. THe eight stories in this collection are deep in their understanding and widely varied in their subject matter. Misurella writes in the clearest, precise prose, and has as his special strength the joining of shining intelligence with deep emotion. LIES TO LIVE BY deserves a wide readership and serious attention,"-Kent Haruf. "All of Misurells's finely-drawn characters are "crossing a bridge, preparing to pass through the doors of a new time zone." Their journey from old-world neighborhoods into more modern times makes for delightful reading" -Rita Ciresi.

"These essays represent a broad array of the papers delivered at the fourth annual conference of the Italian Cultural Studies Association ... held in Boca Raton ... November 7-9, 2002"--P.

Poetry. LGBT Studies. An urban songline of New York. From the author of the memoir L is for Lion, comes a panegyric of the geology of Manhattan. These poems glitter. Manhattan schist is rendered as a template for the skyline and characters of New York. Grit and stardust collide in this debut collection of poetry and song. The book begins with the bright reflective quality of Mica and ends with the gentrified vision of the city where "New York is nine millions doors, and you have not one key." In between are stories of urban icons: iceman, fish peddler, heart butcher, meter maid, San Gennaro, the magic of grandmothers' hands, the vision of the oldest living tree in the city, immigrants who fell out windows and died in explosions, Italian phrases that link the essence of the sun to a rose to a heart, crushed tomatoes, sunsets, supermarkets, the glory of hot tar, the lessons of marines and lesbians. You will learn history and geology, Italian American heroes, and spiritual imperatives, through the syllables of this one poet's soul.

"In her unique, rhapsodic way, Maria Famà transmits history, both past and present, in her poetry. Bringing a modern touch to traditional storytelling, she gives voice to memory in the beat of our times. Through her words, we visit many corners of the world, not just the Sicily and South Philadelphia which are most likely to be familiar to her, but every other place her stories bring us. Famà seems to be at home everywhere, even the spirit world, as indicated in the title of this collection, Mystics in the Family. Her characters are endearing, and so is her way of invoking them. Each subject is eyed with her purity of vision, and treated with tenderness and respect. Through Famà''s poetry, history is appreciated, revered-and loved." -- Rosemary Petracca Cappello, Poet, Writer, and Editor of Philadelphia Poets

Former prosecutor and assistant law director for Lakewood, Ohio, Mileti takesa look at what makes a successful con artist and scammer in the world of finearts--intelligence, finesse, ingenuity, and charm.

Fiction. In this modern-day Robin Hood tale, a teenager is chosen to be a part of the annual Christmas tradition of thievery and charity by the young mafioso of the local neighborhood. Thus begins the sorting out of friendships, the pursuit of American dreams, and the deep understanding of a father's sorrow and love.

Fiction. A collection of newspaper columns written over a four-year span, MOUSTACHE PETE IS DEAD is an insightfully keen look into the world of the Italian immigrant. Through Pete's words, we come to understand the difficulties many immigrants and their progeny have often had in order to negotiate the dominant culture's misunderstanding of the immigrant's culture of origin. MOUSTACHE PETE IS DEAD calls for the birth of a smooth partnership between these two different cultures.

Literary Nonfiction. Film Studies. Remarkable for the variety and sophistication of the approaches that it brings to its subject matter, SCREENING ETHNICITY makes a powerful argument for the validity, indeed the necessity, of Italian American cinema as an object of study. By including the concepts of race, gender, and social class along with the more obvious themes of identity and ethnicity, this collection sheds new light on the careers of Frank Capra, Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Cimino, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and the recently canonized David Chase, while calling attention to the achievements of such lesser known figures as Abel Ferrara, Stanley Tucci, Mariarosy Calleri, and Nancy Savoca. "It comes as no suprise that there is so much smart thinking and writing contained in this book"--Bill Tonelli, Rolling Stone.

Poetry. Italian American Studies. Maria Mazziotti Gillan's Ancestors' Song takes the reader on a journey, one in which she recognizes deep within herself "the voices of the women who came before," their words blending together, forming, as she tells the reader, "the beat I move to." This beat is very much a part of the narrative she weaves in her characteristically honest, intimate, and humorous voice. This beat is true, hard working, strong; a beat that began in the villages on the mountaintops in San Mauro, Italy, and continues to the present day, illuminating the path for those that will follow. These poems will move you to laughter, to tears, and a mixture of both, and are proof that Gillan is at the peak of her career. She is truly one of America's most beloved poets.

Del Boca's work is a northerner's response to Pino Aprile's "Terroni." Both books add to the animated, century-old debate on the North-South question in Italy.

In these sonnets, Turini Bufalini gives a detailed description of her life, from childhood to old age, along with the full spectrum of her emotions. She describes her birth followed by the death of her father and mother, her lonely, rustic but free life as an orphan in her uncle's castle in the wilderness of the Apennines, her exuberant joys of motherhood, and more.

In this poem of 624 sonnets, " . . In the half-mad tradition of the Italian Futurists (Marinetti et al.), Ted Berrigan, and the brilliant scribblers of Oulipo, Viscusi has constructed a wonderful machine for generating sonnets, an effort that reproduces the equally demented project of Ellis Island itself."NMac Wellman..

O. . . reminds us who we were in the early 20th century, when our own emigrants were forced to earn their bread with the most menial and burdensome of work in an America that killed Sacco and Vanzetti.ONRenzo Cassigoli.

In a passionate and polemical manner, Aprile examines the effect that the unification of Italy has had on Southern Italy and analyzes what some of the ramifications are today. A bestseller in Italy, the book sold more than 200,000 copies in its first year of print.