Books in the Via Folios series

Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. California Interest. Italian American Studies. Talarico's true-life narratives inevitably remind you of your own best, half-buried memories.--Chicago Tribune Ross Talarico is a truly gifted poet.--James Wright Some say Ross Talarico has done the impossible.--Katie Couric In Ross Talarico's poems is distilled much of what has been best in poetry.--Donald Justice Ross Talarico has a rare talent: he captures the inner thoughts of 'ordinary' people and reveals their extraordinary visions.--Studs Terkel Talarico writes like a latter-day Wordsworth.--H.L. Hix

Poetry. Italian Studies. In poems born of the rocky soil of the old country, where children learn to sew in a 'walled-in-garden' with 'one potted plant--crown of thorns, ' Frasca threads history and myth. She tells of immigrant hope that turns so quickly to devastating loss, and makes exile real--the self in search of the self. Writing to her counterpart, Anna, who dies young back in Sicily, and carrying her father's ghost, time feels endless, simultaneous. But Frasca is also a poet of wonder, and this work is alive, visionary, painterly. Here, myth isn't an old story, it is the art of transformation, and Frasca embodies an ever-present unfolding.--Anne Marie Macari Like mulberries that both stain and heal, these luscious poems and stories insist on our culpability in the misery of familiar or distant others while also consoling and nurturing with sensorial and sensual pleasures only a poet like Frasca, living within the tension between assimilation and alienation, between worlds that 'disorient & enlighten, ' can deliver. Frasca threads through memories wary of the ways nostalgia scars, seeking antidotes by turning writing into a 'battledress, ' and crafting introspection into a means of saving us 'from our ugly stink.' Enter WILD FENNEL's 'feral fires' and you will emerge both bruised and blessed, loving anise seeds and the smell of fox the way one should, on their own terms.--Mihaela Moscaliuc

Poetry. Italian Studies. The poems in SEASON OF SUBTRACTION are at once effortlessly attainable, and at the same time surprisingly fresh and delightfully unexpected...If you listen carefully, you can hear Michelle say, Yes, you come too. SEASON OF SUBTRACTION is an extraordinary book.--John Stanizzi The prose poems that make up SEASON OF SUBTRACTION bask in the poetics of language and syntax; they are bricks paving a dream-village, both American and Old World...I am in awe of the space Michelle Messina Reale creates: its friction, its strength, its mournful insistence, and the speaker who 'pin[s] my father's heart to the wall and pray[s] a novena to lost souls...'--Jennifer Martelli SEASON OF SUBTRACTION is like Sicily's own citrus fruits--hybridized, yet native and emblematic; sweet and intricate, yet often bitter in places at the whim of life's turning. With its nuanced language, crafted metaphors, and raw honesty, Reale's work is a treat to be savored.--Chad Frame In SEASON OF SUBTRACTION, Michelle Reale entangles you in the language of ache and need, and the search for a lost relative who becomes a found love...You will gather so many pieces in this beautiful collection, and you will exit it feeling whole, knowing what was once lost is now home.--Kailey Tedesco

Poetry. Music. Italian American Studies. forgetfulness / is food for gods / and words are too / so I sit on the sill / of this white window / and plan a house / with means I get / bricks I collect / and stare outside / anticipating works--from Father

MISSING MADONNAS begins with the lunar arrival of its author, Gil Fagiani, who throughout this collection explores mythical Madonnas, nonnas, and urban addiction and redemption for a portrait of a life lived in pain and triumph. Dedicated to his Orlandini family, this book, first posthumous, is the final in a trilogy-CHIANTI IN CONNECTICUT and STONE WALLS-from a first generation American whose poetry transcends the conventional visions of the post-war 50's, the turbulent 60's, and the bitter tenderness of a life that ended much too soon.

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

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.

"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.

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 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.

As a boy in the 1960s, Zweig had a rare opportunity: every summer, he would leave his home in America and make extended visits to his mother's birthplace of Naples, Italy. During each visit, he'd uncover new mysteries about the parents he thought he knew.

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.

"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.