Books in the Via Folios series

"Federico F." is a semi-fictional novel that chronicles the last nine months of Italian film director Federico Fellini's life, from January to October 1993. Angelucci reveals how creatively Fellini treated personal events, as if they were screenplay ideas to be developed.

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.

Poetry. Translated to the Italian by Elisa Biagini, Luigi Bonaffini, Ned Condini, Luigi Fontanella, and Irene Marchegiani. Daneila Gioseffi's BLOOD AUTUMN/AUTUNNO DI SANGUE features selected poems and new work by the poet in both the original English and Italian translation. "Visionary and powerful. Tremendous vitality. A gifted and graceful writer"-Galway Kinnell. "A pleasure to read...Gioseffi's work is brilliant, compassionate, and timely"-D. Nurkse. SPD also carries WORD WOUNDS & WATER FLOWERS and GOING ON, as well as the Gioseffi-edited anthology WOMEN ON WAR: INTERNATIONAL WRITINGS.

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.

OThis unique and remarkable catalogue may well represent the cornerstone of a long-needed Italian-American Archive, the entry point to the social, political, and literary micro-history of one of the largest migrations in modern times.ONPeter Carravetta, Alfonse M. D'Amato Professor of Italian and Italian American Studies, SUNY at Stony Brook.

Poetry. Joseph V. Ricapito is a professor of Spanish, Italian, and Comparative Literature at Louisiana State University and holds the Joseph S. Yenni Distinguished Chair for the Department of Italian Studies. He holds degrees from Brooklyn College, CUNY, University of Iowa, and a PhD in Romance Languages from the University of California at Los Angeles. He is the author of FLORENTINE STREETS AND OTHER POEMS, published by Bordighera and recently published his first novel, Fratelli: A Novel, with AuthorHouse of Bloomington, Indiana.

Mormino presents an overview of the history of Italians in Florida, creditingthe Italian-Americans with the state's growth and development.

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.

Talarico's poetry bridges the gap between the scientific approach to life andthat advocated by the humanities.

Literary Nonfiction. LGBT Studies. Italian American Studies. Edited by Joseph Anthony LoGiudice and Michael Carosone. OUR NAKED LIVES: ESSAYS FROM GAY ITALIAN AMERICAN MEN includes essays by Michael Carosone, John D'Emilio, Charles Derry, George De Stefano, Joseph A. Federico, Joseph Anthony LoGiudice, Michael Luongo, David Masello, Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Joe Oppedisano, Felice Picano, Frank Anthony Polito, Michael Schiavi, Frank Spinelli, and Tony Tripoli.The impetus for this book derived from Michael's thesis on the marginalization of Italian American literature for his master's degree in English. While conducting his research, Michael stumbled upon two books of gay Italian American writings. The only two books! At first, Michael was excited with his discovery. Then disappointment and anger erased the excitement when he realized that Gay Italian American identities and voices were not represented in literature, especially Italian American literature and Queer literature. So, we talked about how both of our identities--Gay and Italian American--never appeared throughout our years of formal education. Those two characters were never written in the scenes; those two actors were never given roles on the stage. And we wondered how much longer this would continue, and how much more we were able to tolerate. The purpose of this book is to present these essays that inform on the experiences of these men and their lives as part of the diverse fabric of American society. The lives of these writers are complex because they are forced to conform into a society that demands that they do not express their sexual and ethnic identities, with pride, in positive ways. As sexual and ethnic minorities, these men experience double discrimination. Many people will ask why this book is important and unique, and why this grou

"Only Sons" begins at an Italian-American wedding in the 1960s and reaches into the new millennium through the story of two families, the Salvaggis and Maresciallos, living near each other in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania.

Fiction. "With deadpan humor, THE POPE STORIES takes on Catholicism, family dynamics, personal paranoia, and the best and worst of our troubled times--a book filled with subtle insights and clever turns of phrase."--Brad Barkley, author of Money, Love and Alison's Automotive Repair Manual

This collection of Tuscan recipes and poetry includes contributions from Ernie Wormwood, Katherine Williams, Christine Sostarich, Rose Solari, and Vivian Shipley.

This volume is a compilation of memoirs and poems of the author and his Sicilian immigrant family.

This new novel completes what will inevitably be called the Anabasis Trilogy, and removes any doubt of Rimanelli's place in American literature.--Fred L. Gardaph, from the Introduction.

Fagiani's) muse is Italian-American memory. These are poems of origins and belonging, of family, culture, and politics. They function as archival records, a museum of language in which a gallery of characters and objects and moments are captured in lines that vibrate with a sound, a touch, a presence.--Edvige Giunta, author of "Writing with an Accent."

This volume is the result of 10 long conversations the author held with d'Aquino, who contributes a Preface to the volume. The interviews were originally published in "America Oggi," the daily newspaper of Italians living on the East Coast of the United States.

Young painter Mario Minitti and several others--Fillide Meladrone, Archbishop Pietero Aldrobondini, Ranuccio Tomassoni, and Nunzio Pulzone--came to Rome at the turn of the century in 1600 to find fame and fortune. Their stories intersect as they fall in love with one another and share a common bond: they were painted by the great Caravaggio.

Literary Nonfiction. Italian American Studies. Women's Studies. "Since the 1960s Daniela Gioseffi has been an irrepressible and unforgettable voice in many of the key debates in American culture. Her...advocacy has given a special validity to her work in the fields of civil rights and of anti-war activism no less than in the struggles against mafia stereotypes and for an Italian American literary tradition. This book displays the depth and range of her commitment and contribution."--Robert Viscusi, Author: Astoria and Ellis Island, Founding President: The Italian American Writers Association

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. On these pages, fans of Michael Parenti's insightful political and historical writings are given a revealing picture of his early years as a youth in New York's East Harlem, along with some of the influences that helped shape his lifelong commitment to activism and social justice. Written with style and dash, WAITING FOR YESTERDAY is devilishly enjoyable and sometimes very touching. It provides delightful vignettes about growing up in a three-generation, working-class, Italian family, along with the amusing predicaments of a street kid's life. The book offers a cast of diverse and colorful characters, brought to life on the gritty streets where Parenti played as a boy, set against a backdrop of impoverished tenements, stoops, punitive classrooms, and a neighborhood church with its ornate celestial offerings. This book is graced with both vivid imagery and sharp political observation. Parenti challenges many of the stereotypes faced by Italian Americans and other ethnic groups. Here is a story that is both personal and broad-ranging, often sweet and occasionally bitter, the human comedy at its best.

(Pasquale) has an ability to create what the reader needs to feel and wants to know. He lifts us with an ecstatic imagination, placing us exactly there, happily at the center, as if we've found the right dream.--Grace Calavieri.