Wild Dreams: The Best of Italian Americana » (New Edition)

Carol Bonomo Albright is editor in chief of Italian Americana and was vice-president of the American Italian Historical Association. A widely published essayist, she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and teaches Italian-American Studies at Harvard University Extension School.

Joanna Clapps Herman is an ward-winning critic, short-story writer, and poet, and co-editor of Our Roots Are Deep with Passion: Italian-American Creative Nonfiction. She teaches in the Masters in Writing program at Manhattanville College and lives in New York City.

For more than thirty years, the journal Italian Americana has been home to the writers who have sparked an extraordinary literary explosion in Italian-American culture. Across twenty-five volumes, its poets, memoirists, story-tellers, and other voices bridged generations to forge a brilliant body of expressive works that help define an Italian-American imagination.Wild Dreams offers the very best from those pages: sixty-three pieces—fiction, memoir, poetry, story, and interview—that range widely in style and sentiment, tracing the arc of an immigrant culture's coming of age in America. What stories do Italian Americans tell about themselves? How do some of America's best writers deal with complicated questions of identity in their art?Organized by provocative themes—Ancestors, The Sacred and the Profane, Love and Anger, Birth and Death, Art and Self—the selections document the evolution of Italian-American literature. From John Fante's 'My Father's God,' his classic story of religious subversion and memoirs by Dennis Barone and Jerre Mangione to a brace of poets, selected by Dana Gioia and Michael Palma, ranging from John Ciardi, Jay Parini, and Mary Jo Salter to George Guida and Rachel Guido de Vries.There are also stories alive with the Italian folk tradition (Tony Ardizzone and Louisa Ermelino), and others sleekly experimental (Mary Caponegro, Rosalind Palermo Stevenson). Other pieces—including an unforgettable interview with Camille Paglia—are Italian-American takes on the culture at large.

Publishers Weekly

In the mid 1970s, Richard Gambino, Ernest Falbo and Bruno Arcudi co-founded Italian Americana, which ran "not only the historical articles and book reviews that other such newly initiated ethnic journals published but also... fiction, memoirs, and poetry." Put together by current editor Albright and writer Herman, this anthology collects notable works from across the decades, "great literature that could easily be included in ethnic studies and American literature." Slotted into five categories-Ancestors, the Sacred and Profane, Love and Anger, Birth and Death, Art and Self-the more than 60 poetry and prose pieces effectively communicate the breadth of the Italian American experience. In "The Garden of the Apocalypse," Vincent Ferrini writes of identity and posterity: "(Each) person/ carries a civil war within him/ who wedding the contraries/ in himself/ already is on his way/ pioneering the new civilization." In "My Father at Eighty-Five," Vince Clemente writes, "I find him/ in the haze and drone/ of the hospital ward, trace/ every line in his sad face/ back to his lower East Side boyhood." One of the most remarkable pieces is Christina Bevilacqua's conversation with academic Camille Paglia; in it, the women reflect on a slew of topics, including family, solitude and Dante. With broad appeal and a strong, distinct point of view, this collection should relate to readers of all backgrounds.
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Acknowledgments ix

Introduction Carol Bonomo Albright Joanna Clapps Herman 1

Ancestors

Prose

My Father's God John Fante 11

The Actor Prepares Michael Maschio 22

The Night Maggie Saw God and Sal Barnum Too Carol Bonomo Albright 29

Sizes Joseph Papaleo 35

An Etruscan Catechism Mary Caponegro 41

Lamb Soup Tony Ardizzone 54

Marco's Marcoroni Tony Zurlo 73

The Guest Rosalind Palermo Stevenson 76

Poetry

East River Nocturne Felix Stefanile 95

On the Square from "Duets in Three-Quarter Time," Anne Paolucci 100

Autobiography Robert Viscusi 101

Tea at Aunt's John Ciardi 102

Cento at Dawn Daniela Gioseffi 104

L'Esiliatu (The Exile) Domenico Adamo 105

The Cellar Twenty Years Later W. S. Di Piero 106

Minotaur Lewis Turco 107

The Garden of the Apocalypse Vincent Ferrini 108

In the Golden Sala Sandra Mortola Gilbert 109

Father's Days Gerard Malanga 111

In Tunis I Walked through Halfaween Alexander Theroux 112

Shinto Mama George Guida 113

Spanish Steps Gerald Mancini 115

Nana's Earrings Tina Tocco 117

The Sacred and Profane

Prose

Against Gravity Albert Di Bartolomeo 121

My Friend, Angelo Ralph Orlandella William Foote Whyte 132

That Winter Evening Antonio Costabile translated by Lucia Mudd 141

Sanctifying Grace Philip Cioffari 153

Poetry

Luisa and Buffalo Bill John Addiego 167

The Concept of God Kim Addonizio 169

My Father at Eighty-five Vince Clemente 170

The Caves of Love Jerome Mazzaro 171

Linens Rina Ferrarelli 173

Love and Anger

Prose

The Two Uncles: An Addendum to Mount Allegro Jerre Mangione 177

The Prince of Racalmuto Ben Morreale 182

Wild Heart Maria Bruno 189

A Conversation with Camille PagliaChristina Bevilacqua 195

Big Heart Rita Ciresi 209

Permanent Waves Kenny Marotta 220

Perfect Hatred Joanna Clapps Herman 233

Poetry

Inside the Inside of the Moon Brian McCormick 243

Why I Drive Alfa Romeos Kevin Carrizo di Camillo 245

Walking My Son on the Beach J. T. Barbarese 246

The Skeleton's Defense of Carnality Jack Foley 247

Birth and Death

Prose

A Marvelous Feat in a Common Place Salvatore La Puma 251

Where It Belongs Louisa Ermelino 255

Unraveled Paola Corso 259

Mama Rose Ann Hood 270

Cairns Dennis Barone 275

Card Palace Christine Palamidessi Moore 283

Poetry

Planting a Sequoia Dana Gioia 297

E si riuniscono, questi vecchi ... LindaAnn Loschiavo 299

Grandmother in Heaven Jay Parini 300

Art and Self

Poetry

Cape Clear Peggy Rizza Ellsberg 303

Language Lesson Grace Cavalieri 304

Lizard-Tree Peter Covino 306

Athletes of God Grace Cavalieri 307

Libretto Mary Jo Salter 308

Books, how silent you are John A. Tagliabue 311

Requiem for a Practical Possum Michael Palma 312

Self-Portrait as Woman Posed on Flowered Couch Clare Rossini 314

Happenstance Joseph Salemi 315

War Song Rachel Guido deVries 316

About the Authors 317