Poem: Confession by Susan Gerardi Bello

I wasn’t there, here. I was asleep
in an apartment in Santa Monica.

I saw it on TV, didn’t smell the smoke,
flee over the bridge. I moved back a year later,

rented a row house in Brooklyn
from a man who lost his son in the North Tower.

When I moved in, I was told his son had lived
in the same house with friends, had stained

the dark wood in the living room. I was told
I could paint anything, except that dark wood.

Some nights when it was late and I climbed
the creaky stairs to bed, I’d listen for his son,
but all I ever heard were my feet on the floorboards.

Donations For Diane Di Prima fundraiser on GiveForward.com

from: http://www.giveforward.com/donationsfordianediprima

Help Poet Laureate and feminist icon Diane Di Prima through a series of painful and life threatening operations.

Poet Laureate of San Franscisco and feminist revolutionary icon Diane Di Prima has inspired so many of us for over 50 years, whether we know it or not. She was one of the only women of the Beat Generation and was instrumental in shaping the way we view gender based politics. She was homies with Ezra Pound! She has published over 4 dozen books of poetry! She is the mother of 5 children!!

Diane is undergoing a series of painful and difficult surgeries, including having all her teeth removed. Without going into any more details, let’s talk about what we can do for a woman who did so much for the advancement of women. If you or someone you know has been inspired by Diane personally or by her large body of work over the last 50 years, please donate anything you can to help her get through this intensely difficult time and the many operations that she is about to go through. Your donation will go towards rehabilitation and medical costs.

For more questions or information, please contact Amber Tamblyn at: amtam.amber@gmail.com

SPREAD THE WORD!

Information on Diane Di Prima:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_di_Prima

Dec 2011- Italian American Writers Assoc Newsletter

IAWA Italian American Writers Association Newsletter December 2011
P.O. Box 418, Brooklyn, NY 11215
http://www.iawa.net

IAWA SUPPORTS ITALIAN AMERICAN WRITING.

PLEASE SUPPORT IAWA .

You can make a donation through Paypal at http://www.iawa.net

Suggested donations:
Membership $30 (students and seniors $20)
Associate $100-249
Patron $250-499
Founder $500-1000
IAWA is a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit corporation. Donations are tax-deductible.

If you prefer to send a check, make it payable to “Italian American Writers Association,” and send it to the following address:

Treasurer, Italian American Writers Association,
P.O. Box 418, Brooklyn, NY 11215
Please share our Italian American Writer’s blog on your Facebook/Twitter account

As some of you know, we have a blog at https://italianamericanwriters.wordpress.com/ And I hope that you have (or will) enjoyed the information and writing presented there. We now have a “Share” button on our blog so you can share the blog w/ your Facebook friends & Twitter fans. So please help get the word out about our blog and click on the “Share” button so others can enjoy the blog. https://italianamericanwriters.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/italian-american-writers-assoc-newsletter-february-2011/
______________________________________________________________
Do you have a Linkedin page? Help Us get the word out about IAWA
Connect to us on our Linkedin page: http://www.linkedin.com/in/italianamericanwritersassoc

Please send us announcements of readings and literary events by the 15th of the preceding month; this means if you have an event in January; send us it by Dec. 15th

Please format in THIRD PERSON and in this order for events: Day, Date, Type of event, Event and Name of Participants, Time, Place of event and address, Admission price; Contact information Web site

We do not open attachments; please put all announcements in the body of your email in plain text only; we can’t use jpg or anything in all caps

E-mail announcements to Vittoria repetto at iawanewsletter@aol.com
______________________________________________________________
Saturday, December 10th – 5:45 pm – 7:45pm.
Poetry and Prose Feature plus Open Mike
Cornelia St. Café, 29 Cornelia St., Manhattan
212-989-9319; http://www.corneliastreetcafe.com
$7 minimum includes one drink
Come in time to sign up at 5:45 pm.
Bring poetry Bring prose Bring script Bring a friend
5 minute time limit for open mike

Feature Readers: Anne Marie Macari & Robert Viscusi

Anne Marie Macari’s most recent book, She Heads Into the Wilderness, was published in 2008 by Autumn House Press. She is also the author of Gloryland (Alice James, 2005) and Ivory Cradle which won the Apr/Honickman first book prize in 2000.
Macari’s work has been widely published in magazines such as Poetry International, The American Poetry Review, and Five Points. Macari is the founder and director of the low-residency MFA program in poetry and poetry in translation at Drew University.

Robert Viscusi who teaches at Brooklyn College, has published Astoria: A Novel (Guernica, 1995; American Book Award 1996), An Oration upon the Most Recent Death of Christopher Columbus (VIA Folios, 1993), A New Geography of Time (Guernica , 2004), Buried Caesars, and Other Secrets of Italian American Writing (SUNY Press) which won the Premio Giuseppe Acerbi in 2008. His present project is an epic poem entitled Ellis Island, currently appearing in parts. One can read random sonnets based upon the whole text at http://www.ellisislandpoem.com. Bordighera Press will publish the full text in early 2012.

Since 1991, the organization has given voice to writers through its Open Reading series at Cornelia St. Café every month.
IAWA is a 501© (3) not-for-profit corporation; donations are tax deductible.

Visit the Italian American Writers Cafe blog
http://www.i-italy.org/bloggers/italian-american-writers-cafe
https://italianamericanwriters.wordpress.com/

Events:

Monday, December 5 Discussion: Mafia Movies: A Roundtable Discussion Portrayals of the Italian and Italian-American Mafias have differed markedly over time and across multiple cultures–from The Godfather trilogy to Gomorrah. Mafia Movies: A Reader (University of Toronto Press,), edited by Dana Renga, provides a comprehensive exploration of the mythification of gangsters onscreen, identifying key features and connections to styles such as film noir, thrillers, and even westerns. This presentation consists of two roundtable discussions with several of the book’s contributors. The “Gender and Violence” panel features Rebecca Bauman George De Stefano, Lara Santoro, Jane Schneider, and Peter Schneider. Elizabeth Leake, Giancarlo Lombardi, and Nelson Moe will discuss “Historicizing the Imagined Mafia.” 6pm. Calandra Italian American Institute, 25 West 43rd Street, 17th floor, Manhattan. Free Admission. Seating is limited. Please call (212) 642-2094 to pre-register with the Calandra Institute

Thursday, December 8 Reading: Tony Ardizzone reads from The Whale Chaser (Academy Chicago Publishers) The Whale Chaser is the story of Vince Sansone, the eldest child and only son in a large Italian-American family, who comes of age in 1960s Chicago. A constant disappointment to his embittered father, Vince finds solace in Marie Santangelo, the neighborhood butcher’s winsome daughter, and Lucy Sheehan, an older girl with a reputation. When Vince abruptly flees Chicago he ends up in Tofino, a fishing town on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. He finds a job gutting fish, then is hired by Tofino’s most colorful dealer, Mr. Zig-Zag, and joins the thriving marijuana trade. Through his friendship with an Ahousaht native named Ignatius George, he finds his calling as a whale guide. Ultimately, Vince comes to terms with the consequences of his own actions as well as the unspoken story of how his grandfather, like thousands of other Italian Americans, was evacuated from prohibited zones on the West Coast and interned in a prison camp after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. 6pm. Calandra Italian American Institute, 25 West 43rd Street, 17th floor, Manhattan. Free Admission. Seating is limited. Please call (212) 642-2094 to pre-register with the Calandra Institute

Tuesday December 27 Women’s / Trans’ Poetry Jam & Open Mike:
Feature Writer: Roberta Satow Roberta Satow’s writing is about her relationship with her mother –as a child and also as her caregiver when she developed dementia. Hosted by Vittoria repetto 7pm Bluestockings Bookstore 172 Allen St. (between Staton & Rivington) Manhattan Take V or F train to 2nd Ave. and exit from the 1st Ave exit and walk south down Allen St. (aka. 1st Ave) 1 ½ blocks to the store $5 suggested donation 212-777-6028 http://www.bluestockings.com/

Wednesday January 4 Reading: New Hungers for Old: One-Hundred Years of Italian-American Poetry Dennis Barone will host and the readers will be Elaine Equi, Mary Giaimo, George Guida, Peter Covino, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Ray DiPalma, Daniela Gioseffi, Matthew Longabucco, Jerome Mazzaro, J. T. Barbarese, Nick Piombino, Maria Terrone, David Cappella, Clare Rossini, Vittoria repetto and Paola Corso. 8pm Saint Marks Poetry Project, 10th St & 2nd Ave, Manhattan,

Members’ News:

Fred Gardaphe & Dominic Candeloro have edited Reconstructing Italians in Chicago: Thirty Authors in Search of Roots and Branches Chicago history/culture with an Italian flair! There is something for everybody in this eclectic volume. Every reader will find a topic or a writer that s/he wants to know more about. Publication of Reconstructing Italians in Chicago is a major step toward making Chicago’s Italians the best documented (and best understood) in the nation. It is a gateway to both the academic and the personal exploration of Italians in Chicago, loaded with references that lead the reader to just about every source of information on the subject. Some of the writers include T Ardizzone,R Benedetti,A Bernardi,K Catrambone, J Colangelo, B DalCerro, P D’Agostino, T DeRosa, C Farella, T Guglielmo,B Lombardo,C Lombardo, R Lombardo, E Milani, R Miele, G Nardini, D Niemiec, P Pero,TRomano,V Romano,J Santacaterina, M Antonucci http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0983553807/sr=1-1/qid=1322495004/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1322495004&sr=1-1&seller=

Thieves Never Steal In The Rain, new collection of Linked Stores about Loss, Love, and the Supernatural by Marisa Labozzetta is out. Love, humor, and the supernatural drive these stories about the intertwining lives of five female cousins, who learn that loss—from misplacing keys to confronting death—is a constant force to be reckoned with. It is also now available as an eBook from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Thieves-Never-Linked-Stories-ebook/dp/B00637TR2Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321326303&sr=1-1 To order for computers, iPads, and other electronic devices, first download free applications by going to Kindle Store, then clicking on Kindle Store under Shop All Departments).

Three Spoken Word Pieces by Angelo Zeolla

Three Spoken Word Pieces by Angelo Zeolla

Maria Terrone’s poem, “The Slain Wife of the Lighthouse Keeper Speaks,” first published in Italian Americana, is included in the recently published Knopf Everyman Series anthology, Killer Verse: Poems About Murder and Mayhem. This Amazon link leads to a list of all poems and authors included in this hard-cover book:
http://www.amazon.com/Killer-Verse-Murder-Everymans-Library/dp/0307700933 Other recent publications include “Spaccanapoli,” in the fall issue of Hawaii Pacific Review; “Knives” (a reprint from The Hudson Review”) and “Missing the Names” in Poemeleon, http://www.poemeleon.org/; and
“Introducing the Forest to Vivaldi” and “Words to Unpin Yourself from the Wall” in Pirene’s Fountain http://www.pirenesfountain.com/ Recent acceptances include “BlackBerry Buzzing” (The Hudson Review); “A Hologram State of Mind” (Ploughshares); and “The Day After” (Poet Lore).

Gil Fagiani’s chapbook, Serfs of Psychiatry, is now being published by Finishing Line Press and should be available by mid-January, 2012. “Fagiani’s poems tell the back story of the powerless and abandoned mentally ill and the equally powerless and abandoned low-level psychiatirc “serfs,” the attendants–the least-paid, least-respected workers, who are, pradoxically entrusted with the day-to-day care of severely disturbed, often violent patients…Move over Ken Kesey, we have another chronicler of the ‘Cuckoo’s Nest,’ Bronx-style.” Kirsten Andersen, Ph.D.clinical psychologist / Adjunct Professor at The School of Visual Arts.
To order copies, visit Finishing Line Press http://www.finishinglinepress.com and click on “NewReleasesandForthcomingTitles.htm.”

Anthony Buccino’s latest poetry collection, “Sometimes I Swear In Italian” is about growing up Italian American in New Jersey, and, much later, discovering the roots of his ancestors. Despite its title, “Sometimes I Swear In Italian” contains no profanity in any language. For more information visit http://www.anthonybuccino.com

Three books written by Dr. Marie Menna Pagliaro for educators have just been published by Rowman & Littlefield. The titles are: Educator or Bully? Managing the 21st Century Classroom; Exemplary Classroom Questioning: Promoting Thinking and Learning; and Differentiating Instruction: Matching Strategies with Objectives. A fourth book, Research-Based Unit and Lesson Planning: Maximizing Student Achievement is scheduled to be published in November. These books by Marie Pagliaro are in addition to her novel, That Woman and the Mafia Don, the profits of which go to help prevent young people from joining all kinds of ethnic gangs. drmariepagliaro@gmail.com.

Daniel Quinn is the author of Organized Labor: Collected Poems (published by AuthorHouse), which covers four generations of American and family history, from the birth of his grandmother in NYC in 1887 to the fall of the Twin Towers in 2001. Like much of the poetry in this 46-page volume, the book’s title has multiple allusions: from poems that deal with the organized labor movement in America (most notably, the 1913 strike of 20,000 Paterson silk workers at Botto House in Haledon, NJ), to the labor of organizing–and reconciling–past and present (captured eloquently in the title poem, ‘Organized Labor’), to even the labor of preparing one’s poetry for publication. Contact Mr. Quinn dquinn711@msn.com for more information

Obituary: Diana Festa
Poet and past IAWA feature, Diana Festa, died on June 8, 2011; yet some of her work has appeared posthumously such as in the current Feile Festa that can now be viewed online [http://www.medcelt.org/feile-festa/v006/poetry/festa.html]. Her poem End of Summer won The Fifth Annual John and Rose Petracca & Family Award and appeared in the 2010 edition of Philadelphia Poets edited by Rosemary Cappello.
Festa was the author of six poetry books, Arches to the West, Ice Sparrow, Thresholds, Bedrock, The Gathering and A Landscape of Time. She has also published four books on literary criticism, and a large number of poems and articles in various reviews and anthologies. She is the recipient of several poetry prizes, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Guizot Award from the French Academy.
Festa, who was a French professor at Brooklyn College until her retirement, created a base for a group of authors known as the Madison Poets who gathered weekly for an evening of writing or editing their poems for over a decade. Her late evening banter and extravagant meals were legendary. Festa will be sorely missed by the Madison Poets and others who came into contact with her. A memorial is forthcoming and will be announced shortly.

“Biting into a morsel of Abruzzese soppresatta will never be the same after reading Anthony Di Renzo’s Bitter Greens: Essays on Food, Politics and Ethnicity from the Imperial Kitchen” begins Maria Lisella’s review of Anthony Di Renzo’s Bitter Greens: Essays on Food, Politics and Ethnicity from the Imperial Kitchen (SUNY Press), which was recently published in the 2011 edition of the literary journal, Feile-Festa, is now online. “Perhaps the key passage to the entire collection is: ‘Italian Americans can learn more about the heartbreak and horror of assimilation from soppressata than from any book…This particular sausage has gone from being a staple, to a treat, to a delicacy, to a swindle in less than thirty years. The phenomenon is a minor tragedy in our history – a minor tragedy, but a telling one.'” http://www.medcelt.org/feilefesta/v006/prose/lisella.html

Check out an interview with Tony Ardizzone in the journal Magna Grece http://magnagrece.blogspot.com/2011/09/fiction-as-life-interview-with-author.html

Publisher’s News/Book Reviews/Contest Winners/Awards:

Italica Press has published out Medieval Naples A Documentary History, 400-1400 http://www.italicapress.com/index287.html and Torquato Tasso Love Poems for Lucrezia Bendidio http://www.italicapress.com/index426.html For a complete catalog,
http://www.italicapress.com

Vittoria repetto has reviewed A New Map: The Poetry of Migrant Writers in Italy by Mia Lecomte and Luigi Bonaffini (Legas-2001) for VIA. This anthology is a bilingual edition of poetry by migrant writers living and working in Italy. These migrant writers hail from places like Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Romania, Holland, Brazil and Albania.

Review of A New Way: The Poetry Of Migrant Writers in Italy

Idea Publication announces the publication of, Barbarossa’s Princess, a tale of intrigue, violence, sex, love and ultimate triumph, Elizabeth Vallone’s Barbarossa’s Princess is also a tapestry of the customs of the Holy Roman Empire, the Norman-Sicilian Court and mores of life in the 12th century. Barbarossa’s Princess is a veritable page turner. From the very first line, we are swept away on an adventure through the corridors of power in the 12th century. We taste and smell the meals, we see the unusual medical practices, we hear all the raucous sounds of life in an age more refined and more coarse than even our own. At the center of this delightful tale is Constance de Hauteville, a woman drawn from a nunnery to become Empress of a continent. She becomes the bearer of the next Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. An innocent, along with her maid-servant, Constance enters the corridors of power and grows to become as forceful as those who would use her for their own gain. Vallone portrays Constance de Hauteville as a woman of chutzpah and humility, a mother who endures the humiliations of women in an earlier time, but who triumphs and endures”. Patrick McGuire, Senior Lecturer of English. University of Wisconsin

The Spaghetti Set, Family Served Italian Style by Rose Marie Boyd Feel like a fly on the wall in the homes of two Italian-American families as a comedy of errors unfolds. The characters’ irreverent, ludicrous and intimate behavior affirms the old adage: ”Family is family, like it or not!” http://thespaghettiset.blogspot.com/

A new collection of essays on the Italian American experience is now available in a Kindle edition from Amazon.com. These 12 essays were originally published in the online journal Suite 101, and some of them were rerpinted in Dante Society newsletters in Boston and Seattle Towards a More Balanced View of Italian Americans by Anthony S. Maulucci

Matriarch ~ A Journey Through Tradition (Work Smarter Now, $24.20) was released released on April 24, 2011. An Italian-American woman residing in central New Jersey, Suzann Brucato has created a photo journal as a tribute to motherhood, family, and heritage. Work Smarter Now has published this full-length collection of poems where Mrs. Brucato conveys the importance of family traditions as a contribution to ensuing generations. Matriarch ~ A Journey Through Tradition Author: Suzann M. Brucato
ISBN: 978-0-615-47832-6 | Library of Congress Control Number: 2011927566 Available at http://www.MagCloud.com Web: http://www.MatriarchJourney.com TheFaceOfPoetry@mindspring.com

Italica Press author (and Italian novelist, essayist, journalist, playwright and poet), Dacia Maraini, has been nominated for the 2011 Man Booker International Prize, the most prestigious literary award in the UK.
The International Prize is awarded for an author’s life work; and Italica Press has played some part in bringing this work to English-speaking audiences. Over the years we’ve published an English edition of her Donna in guerra (Woman at War, 1988), translated by Mara Benetti and Elspeth Spottiswood; her short story “Maria,” translated by Martha King in our anthology New Italian Women (edited by Martha King in 1989); and selections from her poetry in our anthology Contemporary Italian Women Poets, edited and translated by Cinzia Sartini Blum and Lara Trubowitz (2001)

Matriarch ~ A Journey Through Tradition (Work Smarter Now, $24.20) was released on April 24, 2011. An Italian-American woman residing in central New Jersey, Suzann Brucato has created a photo journal as a tribute to motherhood, family, and heritage. Work Smarter Now has published his full-length collection of poems where Mrs. Brucato conveys the importance of family traditions as a contribution to ensuing generations ISBN: 978-0-615-47832-6 Library of Congress Control Number: 2011927566 Print Format – $24.20; Digital Format – $14.29,Available at http://www.MagCloud.com http://www.MatriarchJourney.com Email: TheFaceOfPoetry@mindspring.com

The Paterson Literary Review #38, 2009-2010 is out; this edition features Diane di Prima and includes a number of her poems and a short story Other poets/writers in this edition include Maria Fama, Vittoria repetto, Rachel Guido deVries, Maria Lisella, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, , Jennifer Gillan and Anthoy Buccino See http://old.pccc.edu/poetry/public.htm for price and order form.

Workshops & Conferences:

Friday –Sunday December 9, 10 & 11 Poetry Weekend Intensive w/ Maria Mazziotti Gillan & Laura Boss Located at the convent of Saint John the Baptist, 82 West Main Street, Mendham, NJ Writing weekend poets will find:
Support and encouragement * stimulating activities leading to the creation of new work *
Workshop leaders who are actively engaged in the writing life
Opportunities to read their work aloud to the group
A circle of writer friends
Networking opportunities.\
(This writing intensive is open to all writers over the age of 18.) 15 Professional development credits granted. Fee Schedule: Total $375 Mail check payable to Maria Mazziotti Gillan – 40 Post Ave., Hawthorne, NJ 07506
For discounts, more information & other questions? Call (973) 684-6555 or (973) 423-2921 or email mgillan@pccc.edu or mariagillan@verizon.net

Sat Nov 5th: New Directions in Italian and Italian-American History: A Conference in Honor of Philip Cannistraro 9am
Location: John D. Calandra Italian-American Institute 25 West 43rd Street, 17th Floor, NYC, (212) 642-2094 Free Admission Please RSVP at calandra@qc.edu
Keynote: Emilio Gentile, University of Rome, La Sapienza
“Fabbrica del consenso o fabbrica del potere? Redefining Fascism and Totalitarianism”
New Directions in Italian-American History
Chair: Gerald Meyer, Hostos Community College, CUNY
Charles Killinger, University of Central Florida, “Italian Antifascist Exiles and the Italian-American Community: Renato Poggioli and Gaetano Salvemini as Case Studies”
Marcella Bencivenni, Hostos Community College, CUNY, “Re-examining Italian-American Radical History Through the Lens of Culture”
Peter Vellon, Queens College, CUNY, “‘The humiliation of being treated like Negroes’: The Italian-American Education in Matters of Race”
New Directions in Italian History, I
Chair: Emily Braun, Hunter College & The Graduate Center, CUNY
Paul Corner, University of Siena, “Factories and their Products: A Comment on Phil Cannistraro’s La fabbrica del consenso”
Ernest Ialongo, Hostos Community College, CUNY, “The Calculated Compromise: F.T. Marinetti and Fascism in the Twenties”
William Adams, Hunter College, CUNY, “The politica dei ponti in the Republic of Salò”
New Directions in Italian History, II
Chair: John Davis, University of Connecticut
Marta Petrusewicz, University of Calabria, “Fin-de-siècle Rome: A Republic of Collectors”
Stanislao Pugliese, Hofstra University, “Dancing on a Volcano: Attempting a Popular History of Naples”
David Aliano, College of Mount Saint Vincent, “Re-imagining the Nation: Italian National Narratives Abroad (1922-1945)”

Literary & Research Queries:

Hofstra Entertainment is currently seeking to cast a staged reading (on book) of Eduardo de Filippo’s comedy, Christmas in Naples. Casting 7-8 men, age range 20’s-50’s, and 4 women, age range 20’s -50’s. Reading will take place at Hofstra in the Helene Fortunoff Theater (Monroe Lecture Center), Thursday, November 17, 8 pm and is presented as part of a three day conference event exploring Naples. Directed by Bob Spiotto. Familiarity with Italian is not required as the piece is performed in English and without Italian accents. No pay. Send pix and resume to robert.t.spiotto@hofstra.edu

Linda Baldanzia is a student at Drew University in NJ. in a Poetry in Translation MFA program. I am looking for a translator to help me with literal translations of several short poems. I do not read Italian well. It would be best if the Translator has lived in Italy. The translating will begin this June 201-482-0597, lindabaldanzi@mac.com

Magazines, Contests & Calls for Submissions:

7th Annual Accenti Magazine Writing Contest and 5th Annual Accenti Magazine Photo Competition
Fee: $20 CND for the Writing Contest and $10 CND for the Photo Competition
For rules and submission addresses, etc: https://www.accenti.ca/writing & https://www.accenti.ca/photo-contest Deadline for submissions: February 7, 2012

Luigi Monteferrante is looking for a special edition on work by Italian/Italian American/Italian Canadian authors in the magazine: Chicago Quarterly Review http://www.chicagoquarterlyreview.com/ Work should be submitted to luigimonteferrante@yahoo.com

Feile-Festa is an annual publication that comes out in the spring of each year. Though our preference is for creative work related to Irish and Italian/Sicilian themes, we are open to other Mediterranean cultures, all of which can relate to the respective country of family origin or the diasporas to America, Canada, etc. We are also interested in writing that evokes life in New York City. The reading period starts October 1st and ends January 1st. Please do not send submissions outside the time frame mentioned in the guidelines. http://www.medcelt.org/feile-festa/index.html

The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute published the bi-annual journal the Italian American Review (IAR). The IAR features articles about the history and culture of Italian Americans, as well as other aspects of the Italian diaspora.The journal embraces a wide range of professional concerns and theoretical orientations in the social sciences and in cultural studies. Information for contributors can be found at: http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/calandra/italrev/iarcont.html.

Journal of Italian Translation is a non-profit international journal devoted to the translation of literary works from and into Italian-English-Italian dialects. Subscription price is $25 per year. Submissions and inquiries should be sent to Luigi Bonaffini at l.bonaffini@att.net. All past issues can be downloaded from the journal’s website at http://www.jitonline.org

Pyramid Arts and Poetry Magazine – “Where Rome and New York Meet” Pyramid Arts and Poetry is divided into three sections: Visual Art; Poetry & Literature; and Film. Listings of gallery exhibits, poetry readings, and film showings in New York and Rome accompany each section. For submission guidelines, visit http://www.pyramidmagazine.org

VIA, Voices in Italian Americana, is a semi-annual published in the spring and fall. Issues include sections of essays, fiction, poetry, review essays, reviews, and guest spots by prominent Italian/American writers. Subscriptions are $20.00 per year ($15.00 for seniors, students, and un[der]employed). For subscriptions & advertising, contact Anthony Julian Tamburri at tamburri@bordigherapress.org

Italian Americana is the first and only cultural as well as historical review dedicated to the Italian experience in the New World; subscription price is $20 a year, $35 for two years, to: Italian Americana, University of Rhode Island/Providence, 80 Washington Street Providence, RI 02903-1803. Check out the new Website supplement to the journal at http://www.italianamericana.com

The Monday Night Playwrights’ Series is curated by Richard Fulco; interested playwrights could submit their work at richardfulco@aol.com

Theatre Submissions: Post Road Magazine (Boston, Ma), a literary/visual arts journal, is accepting theatre submissions of very short one-act plays, sketches, and monologues. david@postroadmag.com

The American Italian Historical Association Newsletter is now accepting submissions of book reviews. Please send all submissions Anthony.Tamburri@qc.cuny.edu.

Websites:

Italian Cultural Institute of New York, 686 Park Ave, Manhattan http://www.iicnewyork.esteri.it and click on their monthly newsletter available in digital format.

Casa Belvedere, The Italian Cultural Foundation, a unique 2.75 acre cultural campus and community center on Staten Island for all to enjoy, is a registered 501(c) (3) not for profit organization that seeks to preserve, promote and celebrate the rich heritage of Italy by encouraging an appreciation of the Italian language, arts, literature, history, fashion, cuisine, and commerce through educational programs, exhibits and events. To subscribe to the mailing list and learn more about the upcoming events and programs, call 718-273-7660, e-mail info@casa-belvedere.org or click on to http://www.casa-belvedere.org.

Anthony Buccino has created a blog for New Jersey poets to post info about events, links to their web sites and publishers and literary magazines. You can get email notices- no strings attached – when new items are posted. http://njpoetspoetry.blogspot.com/

http://www.BigFatPrize.com lists over 500 Writing Contests and competition categories like Essay, Fiction, Poetry, Short Story, Young Writers, Songwriting, Screenwriting, Playwright and Journalism

Working Writer newsletter offers solid information with a good dose of humor and a spirit of writing camaraderie. WW is filled with articles on promotion, publishing, freelancing, different genres, how-to, and how-not-to, written by readers across the country. To receive a free copy (no obligation) by e-mail , send a request to workingwriters@aol.com. Or check out http://www.workingwriter1.com

I-Italy: The Italian American Digital Project (http://www.i-italy.org) is online. This site is a forum for discussion and debate over Italian American social and cultural issues, home to numerous Italian American blogs, and the place to read leading Italian American commentators columns on Italian American life.

Readers are requested to visit http://www.italianamericanpress.com to order or obtain information about the fascinating books listed below written by Italian Americans on a variety of interesting topics. At The Italian-American Press, there are links for finding translators, a literary marketplace, and writers’ guilds, aside from links such as Tools for Italian American Writers, Italian American Books, Italian American Publishers, and the Internet’s best selection of self-published Italian American Books (84 Titles).

KIT-Kairos Italy Theater’s mission is to create a cultural exchange program between Italy, the US and the international community, to unveil artistic and creative sides of these two countries to the world. http://www.kitheater.com/

New York Foundation for the Arts, Visit NYFA Source, the most comprehensive database of awards, services, and publications available to artists in all disciplines. http://www.nyfa.org/

The Write Stuff – Online Newsletter of Word Journeys at http://www.wordjourneys.com contains articles on self-publishing, new services and grist for the pen: tips.

The ACLS History E-Book Project http://www.historyebook.org is an electronic resource that includes over 1230 full-text, cross-searchable books in the field of history selected by historians for their continuing importance to students and scholars. Individuals can also subscribe through a membership in the American Historical Association or the Renaissance Society of America.

Accenti, The Canadian Magazine with an Italian Accent at http://www.accenti.ca/

The AA Independent Press Guide is a free, online resource for writers at http://www.thunderburst.co.uk. The guide has detailed listings on over 2,000 literary and genre magazines and publishers from around the world, plus links to over 750 Internet magazines.

http://www.virtualitalia.com is an online resource for Italians, Italian Americans and enthusiasts of Italian culture.

http://www.littap.org is a new resource for literary presenters, with tools such as Guidelines for Writers Fees. In addition to featuring Italian American, Italian Canadian and Italian writers, the site has reviews and links to the sites of writers of Italian Australian, Italian French and Italian Latino American origins.

For the calendar of events for the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, go to http://www.nyu.edu/pages/casaitaliana/events.html

For the calendar of events for the Italian Academy at Columbia University, go to http://www.italianacademy.columbia.edu/calendar/calendar.html

The Immigration History Research Center is at http://www.ihrc.umn.edu

See Poets & Writers for leads to prizes for writers, and places to get away and write, links to grants, conferences and residencies. http://www.pw.org/toolsforwriters

http://www.ItalianAmericanWriters.com is an archive of samples of contemporary Italian Amerian writing; writers include Dennis Barone, Marisa Frasca, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Bob Viscusi, Anthony Tamburri, Fred Gardaphe, Stephen Massimilla, Alfredo de Palchi, Peter Covino, Paola Corso, Gil Fagiani, Louisa Calio, etc. Also check out the other website edited by Daniela Gioseffi – http://www.PoetsUSA.com/

Of Interest:

Monday, December 5th “Italy and the World Economy” In celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy Please R.S.V.P. by opening the link: http://www.italianacademy.columbia.edu/events_calendar.html selecting “Italy and the World Economy” event, clicking on RSVP and filling out the form The Italian Academy, 1161 Amsterdam Avenue (between 116th and 118th Streets)

The Neapolitan Solidarity Crèche – Presepio Della Solidarietà”Casa Belvedere-The Italian Cultural Foundation to open a very special exhibit of
“Il Presepio Della Solidarietà”The Solidarity Crèche, on December 11, 2011 at 3pm. It will be on display at Casa Belvedere from December 11, 2011 – January 7, 2012. The exhibit is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.For exhibit hours, to schedule a group visit, or to subscribe to the mailing list and learn more about Casa Belvedere’s upcoming events and programs, call 718-273-7660, e-mail info@casa-belvedere.org or click on to http://www.casa-belvedere.org

Drums of Illumination: Southern Italian, Brazilian, and Native American Ritual Drumming and Dance for World Peace to Celebrate the Winter Solstice
Monday & Tuesday, December 19 & 20 at 8 pm Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue (between 9th & 10th Streets) Tickets: $25 Reservations: Smarttix at 212.868.4444 or http://www.smarttix.com

Elvin Serrano’s Photo Show of Caribbean at 1840 Ivanhoe Historic Building, 4 Spruce St, Paterson, NJ. Opening reception Friday 12/9/11 7pm-10pm, Photo’s will be on display until until 1/9/12. Parking available at Visitor Center or Great Falls parking lot at McBride Av and Spruce St intersection..

IAVANET Mentoring Program
Founded in 2007, the Italian-American Visual Artists’ Network (IAVANET) is a group of 18 painters, sculptors, photographers, and designers based in the greater New York City area. The collective credentials of the artists encompass the worlds of museum and gallery exhibitions, art education, and work in the marketplace of art and design. To view their portfolio, visit http://www.iavanet.org. Mindful of the great tradition of Italian excellence in the visual arts and its artistic heritage, the group is currently establishing a mentoring program for aspiring Italian-American visual artists of high school and college age. In the program participants will review and evaluate portfolios, offer advice on improving particular technical skills, and suggest projects that would be suited to the individual’s artistic personality. IAVANET will also curate shows of the work of students who participate in the program. Interested student artists can contact Richard Laurenzi at info@iavanet.org, specifying the area of mentoring they are seeking (painting, sculpture, photography, or design arts), to set up an interview.

Diasporic Continuities: A Salon Discussion Point on the Changing Face of Italian Unification on the Verge of its 150th Anniversaryhttp://disunification.blogspot.com/
How you can join the conversation: Still a work in progress, for now, please join the conversation by commenting on one of the existing posts or become a follower of the discussions. If you would like to post something yourself (rather than comment), please email LauraRuberto (lruberto@peralta.edu) or Pasquale Verdicchio (pverdicchio@yahoo.com)

Association of Friends of Piedmont in New York
We are a group of artists, professionals, scientists and business owners sharing an interest for the Piedmont Region, either because we were born there or because we appreciate the contribution that people from Piedmont have made to the arts, sciences and industry. You can learn more about the Association at http://piedmontinnewyork.blogspot.com

Vittoria repetto rents her charming vacation house in Framura, in the Ligurian region on a weekly to monthly basis at a reasonable price. It is the perfect place for vacation especially great if you are a writer or a painter. The occupancy is for 4 people; there are 2 bedrooms. The town is 3 towns north of the Cinqueterre towns. For detailed information and pictures, http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p211239

Italian American Writers, a Cablevision television series hosted by Vito De Simone, runs each month on many New York area and other Cablevision systems, including Manhattan, Long Island and some Brooklyn systems. Check local listings for channels and times.

The New York-based Italian-American Playwrights Forum meets at the Calandra Institute three Thursdays a month to develop plays and carry out discussions about Italian-American identity/themes. The work itself does not have to be about an Italian-American theme. Please contact Gian Di Donna gian@att.net for information.

Three Spoken Word Pieces by Angelo Zeolla

“Guido Poetics”

All you Sucker Bards and skeptics,
Premature ejaculators and narcoleptics
Open up your ears while the glint off this
Malocchio gold
horn smacks you in the face
as if shit hit the fan,
and when things get a little hectic in this place
where are you Sucker Bards gonna stand
if not on some street corner copping pleas,
shouting demands
to the effect
that these Guido Poetics
spit vicious
be put in check:

Locked up in a cage somewhere
magari down a Santo Spirito
oancoramegliogiu’ a Union Square?

MACOSA CAZZO PUOI DIRMI
IF I TOLD YOU WHAT MADE UP THIS
RHYTHM-LIKE COMBINAZIONE?

SCIABLACONE,
in bitter tones this guido
verse dethrones you
like sly corleonese blasting
mustachepete in his voice box
in mulberry street tenement
with make shift rivoltella
that breaks apart over roof tops
mentre young turks
se la filano.

Ti sbagli di grossopero
if you think these Guido Poetics
are a type of flow
capable only of
conjuring up visions that drift thru
the mind’s eye like smoke off
amontecristo
that drifts in the air
in front of store front social clubs
in late ferr’agosto
down on Belmont Ave
right off of centottantatsette.

I say this flow blows thru your
banal banter with candor that
defames your legacy and leaves
relatives reticent—

the fact is you can’t fuck with
this sentiment
that’s remnant of
viatassoinscriptions—yeah I said it.

Don’t blame me if you’re scandalized
Because these guido poetics
went off and set it
Worse than Crocco e NincoNanco
Whose brigantaggio theatrics
were anything
but slapstick
and pathetic

Sucker Bard, this verse
A confrontoiltuo, ‘simoscio e stanco,
Non siaquellosolito d’un saltimbanco
As a matter of fact:

The secret of these poetics
is fundamental
Like acrobatics
and calisthenics

Therefore it’s genetic
that this
Guido verse packs static of the
Same aesthetics as
South Brain Tree processi
that shocked
the Red Scare epoch tragic

Before you get dramatic
Think twice before you declare
that you’ve had it up to here
with these
comportamentianarchici
filled with loathing and fear
That even puts laurelled poets
in a panic
ovvero
unafrenesia
that’s manic

Face it Sucker Bards
Your strophes

shatter too easily
Under poetic mass so titanic
You bust your shit on
Icebergs massicci,
never slim
thus branding yourselves
the biggest sfigati ever
seen on this side of such
a rotten planet,
victim of these guido poetics
that upstage your sucker’s hymn,
regaling all its cantors with
knuckle
sandwiches and
attacks asthmatic
as they saunter off stage
befuddled and
bruised
all the way up top
from rearranged faces
down to busted shins,
looking to lay themselves
out on adjustable
bedscraftmatic.

“Stoop Dub”

As beads
Of sweat trickle down
the flesh of this mid-summer
night

The six train softly
Crawls down the elevated
towards Pelham Bay Station
echoing along sognid’oro
side street of Mahan Ave twilight

Where wide eyed jazzmatazz
minded poet puffs a toscanello
in child-like emulation
Of those long gone
Birds of Passage

whom he struggles to remember
in black & white contemplating
their possible exploits in
earlynovecento Pittsburgh
on 3 in the morning front stoop

Amidst ambivalent outer-borough

Banter about M5 beamers
Dark tints and a chromed out
set of new shoes—

The moon looms overhead
Knocked for six because the
Stars won’t come out and play

Cigar smoke drifts sheepishly
In the mix and guidos curse
The pungent stench it wreaks

They curse the poet decrying him
him a freak stinking of toscanello
smoke who rocks a cheap
pair of penguin
chucktaylors whose ideal world
is one in which all the banks are
razed down to their last glowing ember
and the only currency in circulation
is that raw poetry found at the bottom
of one’s soul that causes cats to be
one with the machinery of

night floating across roof tops
contemplating bop and always
remembering that BIRD LIVES

E BRIGANTE SE MORE!

Where one only needs to
be content with the
rumble of barreling six train
toward
metropolitan
sublime infinity

Where all this neighborhood
bullshit goes up in smoke
like puffs off a freshly lit
toscanello
and the jazzmatazz
minded poet is enlightened
by tumultuous twisted
metal
gallop of six train iron stallion
booking it double time for
heavenlyBleeker St.
so Dago Bards can recite
some poetry and make
eyes at doll faced
subterranean
sirens that whisper
sonnets heavenly.

“Mondrayork”

Saturday night
Ngoperumol a Mondragone
Emcees rhyme these versiimmacolati
defamingcosidettisfigati
For even picking up a microphone,

Motorinifly by purring in the distance
and the skaters are the shit
nel stare a mostro con i loro trick
e per la stradasivedono
passareguaglioncelle,
condeilorosguardi da stelle,
chevanno di modavesitetutte chic.

And one cat over by the kebab
truck sheepishly asks another:

O Fra’ ma ‘a canna ‘a tieni?

Other cat siesce fore’ con unpezzo—
tipo un mattone,
a fat chunk he copped
Over a ruterz’munn’
Si fastapinta,

it gets sparked
And soon ognuno
se ne va
A chiedere:

Ma stutir’ se po’ fa’ o no?

A red moon draped in malinconia peeks down
at streets that stay littered con spazzatura

As i caramba drive by
with their ice grills that
make blood chill,
cio’e’ fannopaura,

the perfume of tainted Mediterranean air
lingers thru the scene
and nocturnal writers throw up a wild style piece
that declares to new arrivals
that peep every street sign,
in wonder,
as they bewilderedly walk:
Benvenuti a MondraYork!

© – 2011 Angelo Zeolla

Between Two Shores: Italian American Reading & Exhibition

Saturday, October 15, 2 pm.
Between Two Shores, a poetry reading featuring poems that touch upon the life and cultures of both Naples and New York, on October 15, 2011 at 2 p.m. in the David Filderman Gallery. The chosen poems will be read by B.Amore as well as invited guest poets of Italian-American descent including Louisa Calio, Pellegrino D’Acierno, Fred Gardaphe, George Guida, and Robert Viscusi.

This reading is coordinate with Hofstra University Museum’s exhibition “B. Amore: Naples – New York” Exhibition Includes Site-Specific Installations Exploring the Connections Between Naples and New York. Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY – “on view from September 30 through December 4, 2011 in the Hofstra University Museum’s David Filderman Gallery, will feature two site-specific installations and over 18 other mixed media works B. Amore has created for this original exhibition, focusing on the cultural and historic connections between Naples, Italy and New York, NY and examining connections between peoples and issues of assimilation, specifically those experiences linking Italy to America.“B. Amore weaves together, in her installations and wall mounted works, the ephemera, music, and other historic, cultural and artistic elements that bring to life, for the viewer, the Italian-American immigrant experience,” said Hofstra University Museum Executive Director Beth E. Levinthal. “Her talents are quite evident in this unique and vibrant exhibition.” A fully illustrated four-color catalogue with an essay by Hofstra University Professor of Comparative Literature and Languages Pellegrino D’Acierno accompanies the exhibit.

Emari Di Giorgio’s work…May 14 Feature

Lonely Planet: A Tour

It’s going. Or so I think. My eyes know beauty. My hands, the quick
spark of matchstick. My mouth voweled, open or closed. The mind

is almost always certain, especially when it’s wrong. In the rolodex
of memory, I flip to longing: a wall of windows overlooks the ocean.

I give a crescent of my shoulder, you offer your wrist. Imagine a girl
with a heart in her foot. If she kicks a rock, the dog, is it with love?

On the eve of indecision, who knows how often each month, my cardiac
fist flails from the floor of my mouth—left ventricle, soft palate.

Give my heart a map and see if it can find its way, wandering
on the wrong train with an empty wallet. The rest of me knows

love has always smelled milky. So what if it sours. Before
it touches the lips, the tongue, the whole body knows surrender.

(originally appeared in So to Speak, Winter/Spring 2010)

Head in a Hand Basket

When I get it
in the mail, priority
delivery, I’m expecting
the buy-one-get-one-free
panty offer. Box bigger
than I was expecting but
what do I know of shipping
panties across the country?
And when I open it
I’m not expecting my
ex’s head, swaddled
in bubble wrap, Styrofoam
peanuts littering the floor—why
would I be expecting his head?—
I just hold it in my hands a minute
or two and set it on the table.
What is this? I ask my cat.
She knows that face too.
But she’s hungry and she’s
a cat so she’s not worried
about an invoice or a return
address or how I’m going
to explain this to anyone.
I feed her and start talking to him.
What? He doesn’t have anything
to say now.

You would think I’d know
what to do with my ex’s head.
The same way I ought to know
what to do with my mother’s head
or that jackass who let his little
dachshund shit in my yard earlier;
I might bowl his bald head down the street.
But I don’t even know what I’d do
for sure with my mother’s head.
I think I’d like to shrink it and
wear it in a ring. But my ex?
I feel sort of bad just throwing it out
but I don’t really want to keep it
around. If I plant it in the backyard, not
bury it, plant it near the pumpkins,
I wonder if they’ll look like him.
I’m wishing it were October, not
August, I could just leave the head
on my front step with a bowl of candy:
Snickers and Kit-Kats and Gummi Worms.
Some kid dressed as Spiderman might
steal it and then, then I would be free
of this face, I know, I loved, staring at me.

(originally appeared in Barn Owl Review, vol. 2, 2009)

First Scene From “The Facility” by Michael Mirolla

A Novel By Michael Mirolla

The time is past already for hoping for time’s arrival,
the time of yesterday, today and tomorrow,
yesterday is today, tomorrow is today, today all is today.

From Octavio Paz’s “The Endless Moment”, trans. Denise Levertov

SCENE ONE: FINAL BEGINNINGS

The first time I use a gun. A 92 Model Beretta to be exact. Two shots to the base of the skull as he kneels before me. Then sit back while the creatures I’ve come to call The Scavengers clean up the resulting mess.
The second time I slit his throat. With a Bowie knife. I would prefer a stiletto but I need something with a sharp edge. Something that doesn’t fall apart on the grind stone. Something that performs its duties with one clean slice.
The third time I try a noose, looping the rope across one of the exposed metal overhangs that give this place the look of a giant Lego set. Then kicking the chair out from underneath him. He jerks and struggles. Kicks. Wets himself. And it takes him much longer to die than I have been led to believe. I learn I have not positioned the knot in its proper place.
The fourth time, naturally, I electrocute him. Tied down to a shiny metal gurney with an array of electrodes. I pull the lever and there is a sizzling sound. He arcs up against his restraints and the muscles on his neck pop out with a snap before he shudders back into his chair and goes limp.
The next time … suffocation … drowning … poison … burial alive … plunging from the metal rafters … a perfect swan dive to the harsh floor below …
Each time, I tell him it’s nothing personal. That, if I have to kill him, I might as well make it interesting. For both of us. Otherwise, it’s the same-old same-old. He looks at me with those big brown child-like eyes and says he forgives me. No, more than that. He says he loves me. He says that, if his dying is what I need to be happy, then he’s ready to do it, however long it takes. Even an eternity, he says in his typically exaggerated manner.
Little does he know. Little does he realize that I follow right behind him. That I too splatter my grey matter against the nearest wall … feel the warm gush of blood pumping from my ruptured carotid … jerk like a deranged puppet beneath the mis-knotted noose … pound my fists and scratch in shallow-breathed desperation against the sealed coffin … the darkness … the lurching in the pit of the stomach … the last gasp sucking for air … the final evacuation … merciful, merciful relief …
Only to find myself once again. Here. Popping up to the surface. Spitting out the fluids. Frantic to get a breath. Chest heaving with huge gulps. Of air. Walking naked. Bare-foot slip-slopping, flip-flopping. Wet. Cold. Shimmering. Shivering. Eyes darting . Following in the footsteps, the still slimy footsteps, of the one I am going to … lovingly, mind you … erase once more. Back to the start.

Michael Mirolla is one of our feature readers on Apr 9th

As if writing novels wasn’t challenging enough, Mirolla and business partner, Connie Guzzo MacParland have recently taken over Guernica Editions publishing house: http://www.guernicaeditions.com
Mirolla has authored two novels, Berlin and The Boarder; two short story collections, The Formal Logic of Emotion and Hothouse Loves & Other Tales, and a poetry collection, Interstellar Distances/Distanze Interstellari. His story, “A Theory of Discontinuous Existence,” was selected for The Journey Prize Anthology, while another story, “The Sand Flea,” was nominated for The Pushcart Prize. His prose and poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies in Canada, the U.S. and Britain, including: Event’s “Peace and War” issue, Telling Differences: Short Stories From Quebec Writers, Tesseracts 2: Canadian Science Fiction, Anthology of Italian-Canadian Writers, and New Wave of Speculative Fiction Book 1. Three of his plays—Gargoyles, Snails, and A Revised Experiment—have received professional productions. Gargoyles won the Canadian One-Act Playwriting Competition.
He lives in Toronto and Montreal leading what he calls “a Highway 401-AutoRoute 20 existence.” Born in Molise, Italy, Michael Mirolla has an M.A. from the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia.

Escondido Night by Jim Christy

Escondido Night

The moon is the shape
Of this hidden cove.
Fishing boats are constellations.
We floated through a heaven
That glittered phosphorescent,
Like plankton in tinfoil,
And paused between a pair:
Aurorita and Viridiana, to thrash
About like comets just
Let out of school.
And continued on a light year
Later Moondust in my mouth
And all over your body.

Jim Christy is one of our feature readers on April 9th

Jim Christy is the pseudonym for James Christinzio, a writer and visual artist who has published 27 books and exhibited his art internationally. His most recent poetry collection Marimba Forever was recently published by Guernica Editions. Of Marimba Fever, the blurb reads: “Many of the poems can be regarded as small films: nourish, action, farce or slapstick; others call music to mind: a tenor saxophone improvising on a standard melody in the wee small hours just as the milk man is getting up and rubbing sleep from his eyes; a roadhouse honky-tonk hell-raiser; six gypsies with accordions and tubas on the back of a flatbed truck somewhere near Ploestki or a marimba orchestra in a tropical town square playing like they never want to stop while palm trees sway and lovers neck on the green benches.”
Jim Christy grew up in South Philadelphia, a tough area featured in his autobiographical novel Streethearts, and also featured in Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky movies. “Boxing was in the air,” he once recalls. In 1968 he moved north and became a Canadian citizen. As a reporter he has covered seven wars and wrote on travel and music. he has read his poetry, often with jazz and blues bands, throughout the world. The Australian broadcasting company compared Christy to Tom Waits “only cooler.”

Italian American Writers Assoc Newsletter – March 2011

IAWA Italian American Writers Association Newsletter March 2011
P.O. Box 418, Brooklyn, NY 11215
http://www.iawa.net

IAWA SUPPORTS ITALIAN AMERICAN WRITING.

PLEASE SUPPORT IAWA .

You can make a donation through Paypal at http://www.iawa.net

Suggested donations:
Membership $30 (students and seniors $20)
Associate $100-249
Patron $250-499
Founder $500-1000
IAWA is a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit corporation. Donations are tax-deductible.

If you prefer to send a check, make it payable to “Italian American Writers Association,” and send it to the following address:

Treasurer, Italian American Writers Association,
P.O. Box 418, Brooklyn, NY 11215
PLEASE SHARE OUR ITALIAN AMERICAN WRITER’S BLOG ON YOUR FACEBOOK/TWITTER ACCOUNT

AS SOME OF YOU KNOW, WE HAVE A BLOG AT HTTP://ITALIANAMERICANWRITERSASSOC.WORDPRESS.COM/ AND I HOPE THAT YOU HAVE (OR WILL) ENJOYED THE INFORMATION AND WRITING PRESENTED THERE. WE NOW HAVE A “SHARE” BUTTON ON OUR BLOG SO YOU CAN SHARE THE BLOG W/ YOUR FACEBOOK FRIENDS & TWITTER FANS. SO PLEASE HELP GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT OUR BLOG AND CLICK ON THE “SHARE” BUTTON SO OTHERS CAN ENJOY THE BLOG. HTTP://ITALIANAMERICANWRITERSASSOC.WORDPRESS.COM/2011/01/31/ITALIAN-AMERICAN-WRITERS-ASSOC-NEWSLETTER-FEBRUARY-2011/
_______________________________________________________________
DO YOU HAVE A LINKEDIN PAGE? HELP US GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT IAWA
Connect to us on our Linkedin page: http://www.linkedin.com/in/italianamericanwritersassoc

Please send us announcements of readings and literary events by the 15th of the preceding month; this means if you have an event in January; send us it by Dec. 15th

Please format in THIRD PERSON and in this order for events: Day, Date, Type of event, Event and Name of Participants, Time, Place of event and address, Admission price; Contact information Web site

We do not open attachments; please put all announcements in the body of your email in plain text only; we can’t use jpg or anything in all caps

E-mail announcements to Vittoria repetto at iawanewsletter@aol.com
______________________________________________________________
Saturday, March 12thth – 5:45 pm – 7:45pm.
Poetry and Prose Feature plus Open Mike
Cornelia St. Café, 29 Cornelia St., Manhattan
212-989-9319; http://www.corneliastreetcafe.com
$7 minimum includes one drink
Come in time to sign up at 5:45 pm.
Bring poetry Bring prose Bring script Bring a friend
5 minute time limit for open mike

Feature Readers:
Susan Scutti and Pauline Spatafora

Susan Scutti’s collection of poems – The Commute — is forthcoming from Paper Kite Press. Her chapbook, We Are Related, was published in 2008 (Three Rooms Press) while Linear Arts Press published her short story collection, The Renaissance Began with a Muted Shade of Green. Her poetry has appeared in many journals and anthologies including The Outlaw of American Poetry and Aloud Voices from Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The New York Quarterly, The Paterson Literary Review, and many other journals and zines. She has independently published her first two novels, Second Generation and A Kind of Sleep. Weekly poems from Scutti appear on her blog, http://octoberbabies.wordpress.com . She is an alumni of Yale University and the City University of New York. https://italianamericanwriters.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/poems-by-susan-scutti/

Pauline M. Spatafora’s Dear Sister, published by Reed and Quill Press, is based on letters written by her mother to her aunt in Sicily during World War II with a focus on Anna, the young woman who embarks on a journey based on the epistolary exchange. The Italian translation by Lea Brunetti is forthcoming from Reed and Quill Press in 2012. Spatafora is a longtime faculty member of the English Department at La Guardia Community College who has designed and taught specialized programs in communication skills, speech, accent correction, and workshops for healthcare professionals. Her extensive experience in the corporate world, communications, and theater underscores her positions as a founder and partner of the Adult Learning Center, Inc., and president of P. S. Communications. She has written has written two other books: Proper Pronunciation Made Easy, The Absent Mother-A Psycho literary study of Virginia Woolf.

The reading takes place Saturday, March 12th, 5:45 p.m. to 7:45 p.m., at the Cornelia St. Café, 29 Cornelia Street, Manhattan, 212-989-9319. The evening starts with Open Mike readings of five minutes each.
Since 1991, the organization has given voice to writers through its Open Reading series at Cornelia St. Café every month.
IAWA is a 501© (3) not-for-profit corporation; donations are tax deductible.

Events:

Wednesday, March 2 Discussion: Italian Opera: A Celebration of Life: An Evening with Music & Opera Educator, Lou Barrella For both seasoned opera lovers and new-comers, this program will elicit an appreciation of this wonderful art form and excite the appetites of all those who especially love Italian Opera. Highlights of the video and audio presentation this evening will include the magnificent works of Rossini, Verdi and Puccini among others 7pm Casa Belvedere, The Italian Cultural Foundation, Inc. 79 Howard Avenue Staten Island, NY 10301 Admission $20 718-273-7660 info@casa-belvedere.org http://www.casa-belvedere.org

Saturday, March 19 Play: Soliloquy for a Seamstress: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire A three character one-person play written and performed by LuLu LoLo A continuous one day street performance on site at three historic locations: Site 1. 11:30 am East Harlem/El Barrio (site of the Saracino home) 118 East 119 Street now the 25th Police Precinct: Site 2. 1:00pm NYU Brown Building (site of the Triangle Factory) Washington Place and Greene Street: Site 3. 2:30pm Collect Pond Park (site of the Criminal Court Building) at Lafayette & Franklin Streets For more information: lululolo@rcn.com

Tuesday, March 22 Film: Cricket Cup Diego Liguori and Massimiliano Pacifico, dirs. In the late 1970s, Sri Lankan immigrants began coming to Naples, often to find employment as domestic workers. The community is now large and well-established, with an estimated 7,000 members who have founded Buddhist temples, Sinhalese-language schools, airport shuttle lines, grocery stores, and passport services. In a country where the game of cricket is virtually unknown, these immigrants have organized local teams and national tournaments, complete with trophies and cash prizes. They practice in empty piazze at night and hold matches in parks on their Sundays off. In Cricket Cup, immigrant Sagara Wickramanayake and his teammates leave Naples at 4 a.m. to participate in a tournament in Florence, trying if only for one day to attain glory and affirmation. Sagara’s story is interspersed with those of fellow immigrants, who recount their experiences and share their aspirations. . 6pm . Calandra Italian American Institute, 25 West 43rd Street, 17th floor, Manhattan. Free Admission. Seating is limited. Please call (212) 642-2094 to pre-register with the Calandra Institute

Saturday March 26 Reading; Rainbow Book Fair includes reading by Vittoria repetto, Join authors, poets, publishers, university presses, and the entire reading and writing community in this diverse spectacular of words, images, and talent. With the Center’s dramatic large 3rd floor exhibition space, additional rooms for panels, poetry readings, and author events, free books and hourly book giveaways, mingling, and meeting authors and readers 11am – 5 pm LGBT Community Center, 208 W 13th St (between 7th & 8th Ave), Manhattan, Free Admission

Tuesday, March 29 Reading: Three Poets for Women’s History Month: Fran Castan, Maria M. Gillan, and Daniela Gioseffi read from their new books available at author’s discount for signing. 6pm. Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia St. btwn. W4th & Bleecker St. Manhattan. $7 cover charge http://www.corneliastreetcafe.com/ Tel. 212-989-9319.

Tuesday, March 29 Reading: Women’s / Trans’ Poetry Jam & Open Mike, Featured Readers:Clare Ultimo & Tammy Remington. Hosted by Vittoria repetto
Clare Ultimo writes about the trials and tribulations of being a female artist in New York City.
Tammy Remington’s 3rd published story was nominated for a Pushcart Prize this year. She’s currently collaborating with collage artist aleXander Hirka, creating what may be an entirely new graphic fiction genre.
7pm. Bluestockings, 172 Allen St. (between Stanton & Rivington), Manhattan. $5 suggested donation. For further information call (212) 777-6028 or email Vittoriar@aol.com

Wednesday, March 30 Reading: Joanna Clapps Herman reads from The Anarchist Bastard: Growing Up Italian in America “I was born in 1944, but raised in the twelfth century.” With that, Joanna Clapps Herman concisely describes the two worlds she inhabited while growing up as the child of Italian-American immigrants in Waterbury, Connecticut. They were Aviglianese and Tolvese, and everything ‘Merican was inferior. It was a place embedded with values closer to Homer’s Greece than to Anglo-American New England, an intensely hierarchical home with prescribed gender roles. Though it was full of passion, the word “sex” was never uttered. In essays filled with wry humor and affectionate yet probing insights, Herman maps and makes palpable the very particular details of this culture—its shame and pride, its family betrayals and profound loyalties. . 6pm . Calandra Italian American Institute, 25 West 43rd Street, 17th floor, Manhattan. Free Admission. Seating is limited. Please call (212) 642-2094 to pre-register with the Calandra Institute

Members’ News:

Barbara Fragoletti Hoffman’s recent publications are “Name Dropping” and “Cape May in January” published in the current Winter 2011 issue of Italian Americana. Her poems, “All the Birds Cried,” The Amish Mother” and “Split” are in the recently published anthology Toward Forgiveness. Her poem “Riffs on Samantha” appears in the anthology Child of My Child. Forthcoming are the poems “My Sister’s Words” in the fall issue of the Monadnock Writers’ Group memory-themed anthology, “Yellow” in a 2011 issue of The Long Island Quarterly and “Relic” in a 2011 issue of The Paterson Review.

Darlene Madott is pleased to announce her website “Blog” has been updated, with reference to recent publications, and forthcoming work. You are invited to visit her website at http://darlenemadott.com/blog.php

Review of Hush in The Daily Beast: Libretto adapted by Emelise Aleandri, Italian play by Etta Cascini Composed/Directed by Charles Mandracchia http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-02-23/midwinter-madness-in-new-york-2011-john-chattertons-festival/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsC2
http://www.hushthemusical.com

Beyond DiMaggio: Italian Americans in Baseball by Lawrence Baldassaro
Foreword by Dom DiMaggio hardcover ISBN: 978-0-8032-1705-8 $34.95 from the
University of Nebraska Press Lawrence Baldassaro tells the stories of Italian Americans’ contributions to the game, from Joe DiMaggio, who transcended his ethnic identity to become an American icon, to A. Bartlett Giamatti, who served as commissioner of baseball, to Mike Piazza, considered the greatest hitting catcher ever. Baldassaro conducted more than fifty interviews with players, coaches, managers, and executives—some with careers dating back to the thirties—in order to put all these figures and their stories into the historical context of baseball, Italian Americans, and, finally, the culture of American sports.

The New York Board of Regents is planning to eliminate all Regents Exams (including Italian) with the exception of French and Spanish. Now that AP Italian has been restored, it is critical that the Italian Regents Exam be maintained as well. From June 2005 to June 2009, the number of students taking the Italian Regents Exam rose significantly. Neither French, German, or Hebrew have exhibited that kind of significant growth.
It is also important to note that a substantial number of students taking the AP Spanish exam are native speakers of Spanish. The opposite is true of students taking the Italian Regents Exam. Most students studying Italian are NOT Italian-Americans.
Please go to http://www.petitiononline.com/aati2010/ to sign the petition in support of the Italian Regents Exam

Maria Mazziotti Gillan is a recipient of the 2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award. She will be presented with this award – along with John Grisham, Elizabeth Nunez, and recipient of the Editor’s Award, Jonathan Galassi — at a Poets & Writers’ benefit dinner on March 2. The Writers for Writers Award was established by Poets & Writers in 1996 to recognize authors who have given generously to other writers or to the broader literary community

Small Press Distribution, a non-profit literary arts organization located in Berkeley, California, highlighted Gil Fagiani’s newly published Chianti in Connecticut (Bordighera Press) among its Recommended New Titles for Jan. 15-31.
“Gil Fagiani’s muse is Italian American memory. These are poems of origins and belonging, of family, culture, politics. These are recollections, both elegiac and ironic, of a world Gil Fagiani observes from the privileged perspective of an insider who does not feel bound to the need to eulogize his community. 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.
Visit http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/9781599540153/default.aspx

Feile-Festa, a literary arts journal that will be publishing its sixth annual volume in the spring of 2011, was recently the subject of a review by Laura Bones on http://www.NewPages.com

The December edition of Nota Bene, featured Gil Fagiani and Maria Lisella, Board Members of the Italian American Writers Association. Hosted by Fred Gardaphe, Fulbright Fellow and Distinguished Professor of Italian American Studies at Queens College/CUNY, Nota Bene is a live discussion program, featuring dynamic conversation with leading Artists and Scholars of the Italian American Culture . Nota Bene can be seen on the Internet live at http://www.Livestream.com/Italics the third Wednesday of every month and the show is archived at this site.

Louisa Calio’s poem, Signifying Woman—An Italian American Jazz Poem” published in latest volume Sweet Lemons 2, International writings with a Sicilian Accent from Legas Press edited by Venera Fazio and Delia De SantisThe anthology is available through Legas Press by contacting Gaetano Cippola by email: gcipolla@optonline.net or on Amazon. The poem will be the subject of an essay by Delia De Santis which will be including inthe book tentatively entitled: Writing Our Way Home an anthology which will be edited by Licia Canton and Caroline Morgan Di iovanni and published by Guernica Editions.

Maria Lisella is the recipient of a Merida Fellowship Award from U.S. Poets in Mexico, 2011.

Amy Barone’s poem “Tumult” appears in the November/December issue of Stroke Connection Magazine. http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aha/strokeconnection_20101112/#/8

Daniel Cartaina was interviewed by his publisher Editions Bibliotekos for his short story “Departure From Chambley Avenue”. The interview can be found on their blog for September 27, 2010. http://www.ebibliotekos.blogspot.com/

Nancy C. Carnevale is the recipient of a 2010 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for A New Language, A New World: Italian Immigrants in the United States, 1890-1945 (University of Illinois Press, 2009).

Maria Mazziotti Gilan’s poem “It’s Complicated, This Loving Now” from her new book What We Pass On: Collected Poems (Guernica Editions) appears at https://italianamericanwriters.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/poem-by-maria-mazziotti-gillan/

Vittoria repetto’s poem “the fade out” appears in the Paterson Literary Review #38, 2009-2010; you can read it at her blog http://www.vittoriarepetto.wordpress.com

George Guida’s poem “The Good People of New York City” appears at https://italianamericanwriters.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/poem-by-george-guida/

Dr. Marie Menna Pagliaro’s novel, That Woman and the Mafia Don, conveys the rejection of Mafia values by proud Italian-Americans. The novel is available at Barnes and Noble (www.bn.com ) or amazon.com with book sale profits going to help prevent young people from joining all kinds of ethnic gangs. That Woman and the Mafia Don was selected to launch the Il Circolo Book Club of Palm Beach because the novel covers four generations of Italian women, providing a focus for discussions on Il Circolo’s theme for this season, Italian American Women. To learn more about the novel, visit
Dr. Pagliaro’s website at http://www.mariepagliaro.com.

Publisher’s News/Book Reviews/Contest Winners/Awards:

For what’s new at Italica Press, please check out http://italicapressnews.blogspot.com/
You can also visit Italica Press at http://www.italicapress.com/

History 4 All, Inc. Publishers, announces the release of their newest work, An Extreme Prejudice: Anti-Italian Sentiment and Violence in Louisiana, 1855-1924, by author and historian, Alan G. Gauthreaux.
An Extreme Prejudice portrays Italian immigrants as victims of their own pursuit of happiness. Encouraged to come to the United States and particularly Louisiana, to increase the “white” population after the American Civil War, most soon found themselves the victims of racial prejudice and deadly violence. As time passed, our melting-pot became more tolerant of ethnic differences to the point of when crimes against Italian immigrants proved too daunting, “white” citizens actively and publicly came to their aid. The Italian work ethic and strong desire to become part of the American dream is now a part of Louisiana’s rich mystique.ISBN-10: 1934285404 ISBN-13: 978-1934285404

The Paterson Literary Review #38, 2009-2010 is out; this edition features Diane di Prima and includes a number of her poems and a short story Other poets/writers in this edition include Maria Fama, Vittoria repetto, Rachel Guido deVries, Maria Lisella, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, , Jennifer Gillan And Anthoy Buccino See http://old.pccc.edu/poetry/public.htm for price and order form.

The University of Wisconsin Press is pleased to announce the publication of Catina’s Haircut A Novel in Stories by Paola Corso.
“Catina’s Haircut taps into deep places of storytelling—collective memory and imagination, folklore and social history—to bring together in one book the Fata Morgana, live chickens, the Risorgimento, and the Pittsburgh Steelers.”—Adria Bernardi, author of Openwork
“Here are important stories of loss and retrieval in an Italian family. Because of Paola Corso’s clear writing, we become witnesses to the courageous and undeniably Italian struggle of the last century’s immigrants and consequently to that constant spark of human spirit in all people.”—Gioia Timpanelli, author of What Makes A Child Lucky Publication Date: October 29, 2010 Cloth, ISBN: 978-0-299-24840-6, $21.95, 114 pages
e-book, ISBN: 978-0-299-24843-7, $9.99

New from Bordighera Press Such is Life, A Memoir / Ma la vita e’ fatta cosi’ (A bilingual edition) Written by: Leonilde Frieri Ruberto, Translation and Preface by: Laura E. Ruberto, Introduction by: Ilaria Serra
“An immigrant woman’s moving account of what one gains, but also what one loses, when emigrating to the U.S. from a village in rural Campania. All those who have been uprooted from their homes can identify with this Southern Italian woman’s life story—marked by acceptance of hardship and the poetic memory of the village in which she was born and to which she could not bear to return.” Paola Alessandra Sensi-Isolani, Professor of Anthropology, St. Mary’s College of California

By the Breath of Their Mouths: Narratives of Resistance in Italian America (Suny Series in Italian/American Culture) by Mary Jo Bona “This book will become a canonical work in the criticism of Italian American literature.” –John Paul Russo, author of The Future without a Past: The Humanities in a Technological Society “This is a work of consummate scholarship incorporating substantial knowledge of literary history, critical theory, and great breadth of reading in Italian American and multiethnic literature. Beautifully written, it is one of the top critical works I have encountered in the field of Italian American studies.” –Josephine Gattuso Hendin, author of Heartbreakers: Women and Violence in Contemporary Culture and Literature ”
http://www.sunypress.edu/p-4948-by-the-breath-of-their-mouths.aspx

Literary & Research Queries:

Dom Giordano, talk show host with WPHT 1210 AM Radio in Philadelphia, is looking for contributors to the book- recipes, Feast of the Seven Fishes stories and other Italian/family traditions and recollections of the Christmas season. http://www.thefeastofthesevenfishes.com Contact Askdomg@aol.com

Alexandra Maffei holds a Masters in Italian Linterature and runs two blogs, one in English breakingnewts.blogspot.com the other in Italian, telegrafite.blog.espresso.repubblica.it/telegrafite. “I’m an excellent translator, fully conversant in Italian and American cultures, so consider me, should you know of or need services” viridiana430@msn.com

R. D. Williams is writing about her immigrant experience, willing to meet other writers. Also, seeking advice on how to obtain publisher. Contact: rosaria@gmail.com

Lachrista Greco is currently working on a book proposal for an anthology on young (20-something) Italian American women and the search for identity. She is looking for women to write on identity, feminism, sexuality, activism, etc. You may submit poetry and/or nonfiction. This book will be using a feminist framework. olive.grrrl@gmail.com

Magazines, Contests & Calls for Submissions:

Feile-Festa is an annual publication that comes out in the spring of each year. Though our preference is for creative work related to Irish and Italian/Sicilian themes, we are open to other Mediterranean cultures, all of which can relate to the respective country of family origin or the diasporas to America, Canada, etc. We are also interested in writing that evokes life in New York City. The reading period starts October 1st and ends January 1st. Please do not send submissions outside the time frame mentioned in the guidelines. http://www.medcelt.org/feile-festa/index.html

The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute is happy to announce the re-launching of its bi-annual journal the Italian American Review (IAR). The IAR features articles about the history and culture of Italian Americans, as well as other aspects of the Italian diaspora.The journal embraces a wide range of professional concerns and theoretical orientations in the social sciences and in cultural studies. Information for contributors can be found at: http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/calandra/italrev/iarcont.html.

Journal of Italian Translation is a non-profit international journal devoted to the translation of literary works from and into Italian-English-Italian dialects. Subscription price is $25 per year. Submissions and inquiries should be sent to Luigi Bonaffini at l.bonaffini@att.net. All past issues can be downloaded from the journal’s website at http://www.jitonline.org

Pyramid Arts and Poetry Magazine – “Where Rome and New York Meet” Pyramid Arts and Poetry is divided into three sections: Visual Art; Poetry & Literature; and Film. Listings of gallery exhibits, poetry readings, and film showings in New York and Rome accompany each section. For submission guidelines, visit http://www.pyramidmagazine.org

VIA, Voices in Italian Americana, is a semi-annual published in the spring and fall. Issues include sections of essays, fiction, poetry, review essays, reviews, and guest spots by prominent Italian/American writers. Subscriptions are $20.00 per year ($15.00 for seniors, students, and un[der]employed). For subscriptions & advertising, contact Anthony Julian Tamburri at tamburri@bordigherapress.org

Italian Americana is the first and only cultural as well as historical review dedicated to the Italian experience in the New World; subscription price is $20 a year, $35 for two years, to: Italian Americana, University of Rhode Island/Providence, 80 Washington Street Providence, RI 02903-1803. Check out the new Website supplement to the journal at http://www.italianamericana.com

The Monday Night Playwrights’ Series is curated by Richard Fulco; interested playwrights could submit their work at richardfulco@aol.com

Theatre Submissions: Post Road Magazine (Boston, Ma), a literary/visual arts journal, is accepting theatre submissions of very short one-act plays, sketches, and monologues. david@postroadmag.com

The American Italian Historical Association Newsletter is now accepting submissions of book reviews. Please send all submissions Anthony.Tamburri@qc.cuny.edu.

Call for Papers:

Courses:

Casa Belvedere – the Italian Cultural Foundation of Staten Island – announces that Italian language instruction will be available to toddlers, children, teens, and adults beginning March 7, 2011. Interested students are invited to register soon. Student enrollments will be accepted in person at our office located at 79 Howard Avenue between the hours of 11 am to 6 pm, Monday through Thursday. Or registrations may also be completed via phone, fax, email or online at http://www.casa-belvedere.org on the language program page.

Conferences and Workshops:

Thursday-Saturday March 24- 26 Conference: Legacy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Day CUNY Grad Center 365 Fifth Ave Full Schedule: http://trianglefireconference.org/

International Poetry Festival
Dear Poet,
We would like to invite you to be a participant in the first International Poetry Festival, which is a collaboration between The Seventh Quarry Swansea Poetry Magazine and Cross-Cultural Communications, New York, taking place in Swansea, Wales, U.K., from 15–19 June, 2011.
Please contact: Stanley Barkan , 239 Wynsum Avenue, Merrick, NY 115566 Tel: 516-868-5635 cccpoetry@aol.com

Websites:

Casa Belvedere, The Italian Cultural Foundation, a unique 2.75 acre cultural campus and community center on Staten Island for all to enjoy, is a registered 501(c) (3) not for profit organization that seeks to preserve, promote and celebrate the rich heritage of Italy by encouraging an appreciation of the Italian language, arts, literature, history, fashion, cuisine, and commerce through educational programs, exhibits and events. To subscribe to the mailing list and learn more about the upcoming events and programs, call 718-273-7660, e-mail info@casa-belvedere.org or click on to http://www.casa-belvedere.org.

Anthony Buccino has created a blog for New Jersey poets to post info about events, links to their web sites and publishers and literary magazines. You can get email notices- no strings attached – when new items are posted. http://njpoetspoetry.blogspot.com/

http://www.BigFatPrize.com lists over 500 Writing Contests and competition categories like Essay, Fiction, Poetry, Short Story, Young Writers, Songwriting, Screenwriting, Playwright and Journalism

Working Writer newsletter offers solid information with a good dose of humor and a spirit of writing camaraderie. WW is filled with articles on promotion, publishing, freelancing, different genres, how-to, and how-not-to, written by readers across the country. To receive a free copy (no obligation) by e-mail , send a request to workingwriters@aol.com. Or check out http://www.workingwriter1.com

I-Italy: The Italian American Digital Project (http://www.i-italy.org) is online. This site is a forum for discussion and debate over Italian American social and cultural issues, home to numerous Italian American blogs, and the place to read leading Italian American commentators columns on Italian American life.

Readers are requested to visit http://www.italianamericanpress.com to order or obtain information about the fascinating books listed below written by Italian Americans on a variety of interesting topics. At The Italian-American Press, there are links for finding translators, a literary marketplace, and writers’ guilds, aside from links such as Tools for Italian American Writers, Italian American Books, Italian American Publishers, and the Internet’s best selection of self-published Italian American Books (84 Titles).

KIT-Kairos Italy Theater’s mission is to create a cultural exchange program between Italy, the US and the international community, to unveil artistic and creative sides of these two countries to the world. http://www.kitheater.com/

New York Foundation for the Arts, Visit NYFA Source, the most comprehensive database of awards, services, and publications available to artists in all disciplines. http://www.nyfa.org/

The Write Stuff – Online Newsletter of Word Journeys at http://www.wordjourneys.com contains articles on self-publishing, new services and grist for the pen: tips.

The ACLS History E-Book Project http://www.historyebook.org is an electronic resource that includes over 1230 full-text, cross-searchable books in the field of history selected by historians for their continuing importance to students and scholars. Individuals can also subscribe through a membership in the American Historical Association or the Renaissance Society of America.

Accenti, The Canadian Magazine with an Italian Accent at http://www.accenti.ca/

The AA Independent Press Guide is a free, online resource for writers at http://www.thunderburst.co.uk. The guide has detailed listings on over 2,000 literary and genre magazines and publishers from around the world, plus links to over 750 Internet magazines.

http://www.virtualitalia.com is an online resource for Italians, Italian Americans and enthusiasts of Italian culture.

http://www.littap.org is a new resource for literary presenters, with tools such as Guidelines for Writers Fees. In addition to featuring Italian American, Italian Canadian and Italian writers, the site has reviews and links to the sites of writers of Italian Australian, Italian French and Italian Latino American origins.

For the calendar of events for the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, go to http://www.nyu.edu/pages/casaitaliana/events.html

For the calendar of events for the Italian Academy at Columbia University, go to http://www.italianacademy.columbia.edu/calendar/calendar.html

The Immigration History Research Center is at http://www.ihrc.umn.edu

See Poets & Writers for leads to prizes for writers, and places to get away and write, links to grants, conferences and residencies. http://www.pw.org/toolsforwriters

http://www.ItalianAmericanWriters.com is an archive of samples of contemporary Italian Amerian writing; writers include Dennis Barone, Marisa Frasca, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Bob Viscusi, Anthony Tamburri, Fred Gardaphe, Stephen Massimilla, Alfredo de Palchi, Peter Covino, Paola Corso, Gil Fagiani, Louisa Calio, etc. Also check out the other website edited by Daniela Gioseffi – http://www.PoetsUSA.com/

Of Interest:

Wednesday, March 9 Discussion: The Neapolitan Instrument Makers of New York For more than a century, Italian Americans in and around New York City have produced a great variety of stringed musical instruments ranging from European-style violins, mandolins, and guitars, to American instruments such as the banjo, archtop guitar and mandolin, and electric guitars. The arrival of highly skilled Italian craftsmen around the turn of the twentieth century was in large measure driven by the American fad for the Neapolitan mandolin, and a great number of makers established thriving businesses during this time. In the 1920s, as interest in the mandolin was fading, some of these highly skilled craftsmen were able to make the transition to producing other instruments to meet the demands of changing musical styles. Jayson Kerr Dobney, Associate Curator in the Department of Musical Instruments at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will trace this history from the first Italian makers who arrived in New York City in the nineteenth century, to makers from this tradition still active in the tri-state region. An exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York, runs from February 9 to July 4, 2011. 6pm . Calandra Italian American Institute, 25 West 43rd Street, 17th floor, Manhattan. Free Admission. Seating is limited. Please call (212) 642-2094 to pre-register with the Calandra Institute

Tuesday, March 8 International Women’s Day Celebration 5:30pm Metacomet Country Club 500 Veterans Memorial Parkway East Providence, RI Join us for a wine reception and bring a friend! RSVP by emailing noiaw@noiaw.org prior to the event

Responses to Jersey Shore:
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/01/26/snooki-jwoww-topless-italy-jersey-shore-italians-enraged/
http://celebritynewsandstyle.com/jersey-shore-move-causes-italian-outrage-112/

Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition
March 25, 2011 is the Centennial of the infamous Triangle Factory Fire. Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, of which IAWA is a member, is organizing a city-wide commemoration in honor of all who were lost and in support of the on-going fight for social justice for all. In concert with organizations and individuals across the country, the group plans to create a living memorial that reflects the powerful social conscience and action that the fire inspired linking it to present day struggles for workers’ rights.
Keep watch for IAWA’s special events in 2011 starting with the January 8, 2011 reading at Cornelia St. Cafe dedicated to the theme of work and optionally, writing focused on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire — watch for more events with The Triangle Fire Remembrance Coalition leading to the centennial, March 25, 2011. (http://www.rememberthetrianglefire.org/) as well as fundraisers, and special events to commemorate our own 20th Anniversary.

Diasporic Continuities: A Salon Discussion Point on the Changing Face of Italian Unification on the Verge of its 150th Anniversaryhttp://disunification.blogspot.com/
How you can join the conversation: Still a work in progress, for now, please join the conversation by commenting on one of the existing posts or become a follower of the discussions. If you would like to post something yourself (rather than comment), please email LauraRuberto (lruberto@peralta.edu) or Pasquale Verdicchio (pverdicchio@yahoo.com)

Association of Friends of Piedmont in New York
We are a group of artists, professionals, scientists and business owners sharing an interest for the Piedmont Region, either because we were born there or because we appreciate the contribution that people from Piedmont have made to the arts, sciences and industry.You can learn more about the Association at http://piedmontinnewyork.blogspot.com

Vittoria repetto rents her charming vacation house in Framura, in the Ligurian region on a weekly to monthly basis at a reasonable price. It is the perfect place for vacation especially great if you are a writer or a painter. The occupancy is for 4 people; there are 2 bedrooms. The town is 3 towns north of the Cinqueterre towns. For detailed information and pictures, http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p211239

Italian American Writers, a Cablevision television series hosted by Vito De Simone, runs each month on many New York area and other Cablevision systems, including Manhattan, Long Island and some Brooklyn systems. Check local listings for channels and times.

The New York-based Italian-American Playwrights Forum meets at the Calandra Institute three Thursdays a month to develop plays and carry out discussions about Italian-American identity/themes. The work itself does not have to be about an Italian-American theme. Please contact Gian Di Donna gian@att.net for information.

Poems by Susan Scutti

objects in mirror are closer than they appear

His voice a dark murmur, a key in her lock
Driving east the wind tastes salty like his sweat
They’d made love during night’s coldest hour yet
This morning she wonders, Is my need of him true?
Instinct lost in the confusion of many men
Remembering the past she recalls her motivation
Change only happened when she tired of frustration
Above the earth, above the car seagulls form a flock
Fill what she can see of sky, rob her of its blue
For a never-ending moment her pulse speeds then
Subsides

natura morta

In Italian
the words for “still life”
slow the tempo
of my heart.

Seed Bomb

In the mind
of someone loving
nervous angels sweep
the past from
accidental view while
repressed desires
dress in perfumed silk and
emerge as if on
cue and all
you dreamed when
you were wild
arises from
the sweet and
suspect river.

How do we unlearn
the impassible?

How do we charm
distant eels?

In the heart of
someone sleeping
pastel zinnias
bloom and tremble
as they bathe in
waves of distant stars.
They’re drenched in awe of
heavenly fire, of
a passionate self, the
blameless core you
no longer can
deny, the fevered self you
once feared
might die.