Italian American Writers on New Jersey: An Anthology of Poetry and Prose

by Jennifer Gillan (Editor), Maria Mazziotti Gillan (Contribution by), Edvige Giunta (Editor), Jennifer Gillan (Contribution by), Maria Mazziotti Gillan (Editor)

Overview

This anthology gathers fiction, poetry, memoirs, oral histories, and journalistic pieces by some of the best writers to chronicle the Italian American experience in the Garden State. These works focus on ethnic identity and the distinctive culture of New Jersey, which has long been home to a large and vital Italian American community.

Filled with passion, humor, and grace, these writings depict a variety of experiences, including poignant but failed attempts at conformity and the alienation often felt by ethnic Americans. The authors also speak of the strength gained through the preservation of their communities and the realization that it is often the appreciation of their heritage that helps them to succeed. Although presented from the vantage point of only one ethnic group, this book addresses in microcosm the complexities of American identity, depicting situations and conveying emotions that will resonate with people of all immigrant ancestries.

Among the many writers featured are Gay Talese, Bill Ervolino, Tom Perrotta, Louise DeSalvo, Carole Mazo, Diane di Prima, and Maria Laurino. Each of the contributors provides a fresh perspective on the diversity, complexity, and richness of the Italian American experience.

Publication of this book is made possible in part by a grant from the Institute of Italian and Italian American Heritage Studies, State of New Jersey.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813533179
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	10/21/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	308
Sales rank:	992,492
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

JENNIFER GILLAN is an associate professor at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts. With Maria Gillan, she has edited Unsettling America, Identity Lessons, and Growing Up Ethnic in America.

MARIA MAZZIOTTI GILLAN is founder and executive director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College and director of the creative writing program at SUNY-Binghamton. Her latest book of poetry is Italian Women in Black Dresses.

EDVIGE GIUNTA is an associate professor of English at New Jersey City University. She is the author of Writing with an Accent: Contemporary Italian American Women Authors.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction / Jennifer Gillan / Maria Mazziotti Gillan / Edvige Giunta
PART ONE Looking Back
Combat Zones / Louise DeSalvo
Ocean City: Unto the Sons / Gay Talese
Hoboken: Three Circles of Light / Pietro di Donato
Trenton / Grace Cavalieri
Montclair Memories: Personal Reflections and an Oral Interview / Marisa S. Trubiano
Litania for My Mother's Hands / Edvige Giunta
Gardener / Edvige Giunta
A Trip Home / David Della Fera
IN DEPTH Paterson, the Alpha & the Omega
1915: Mill Song / William Harry Harding
Rebel Girls / Jennifer Guglielmo
We Must Rebel! / Maria Barbieri
To the Women Workers / Maria Roda
Paterson: 1913 / Josephine Stifavo
Time's End / Arturo Giovannitti
Dye House Strike, 1933 / Arturo Mazziotti
Downtown Paterson / Tom DeBlasio Carroll
The Tangerine Plymouth and the Gilded Cage / Rachel Guido de Vries
Paterson, New Jersey / Carole Maso
Public School No. 18, Paterson, New Jersey / Maria Mazziotti Gillan
In the Stacks at the Paterson Public Library / Maria Mazziotti Gillan
Growing Up Italian in Paterson, New Jersey / Maria Mazziotti Gillan
PART TWO
Blending In Scents / Maria Laurino
Daddy, We Called You / Maria Mazziotti Gillan
Third-Generation Hawthorne / Jennifer Gillan
Race Riot / Tom Perrotta
Dorissa / Daniela Gioseffi
Strike One: Seaside Heights, New Jersey / Annie Rachele Lanzillotto
Lyndhurst Memories / Ed Smith
Quench a Plant's Thirst / Edvige Giunta
St. Therese / Edvige Giunta
Nevertheless, It Moves / Susanne Antonetta
PART THREE Crossing Bridges
Hungry Dog / Agnes Rossi
Letter from New Jersey / Diane di Prima
On the Beaches of Wildwood, New Jersey / Mary Ann Mannino
June Wednesdays / Mary Ann Mannino
Suburban Backyards / June Avignone
Jersey Tomato Wars / Mary Ann Castronovo Fusco
I Check Other / Carla Guerriero
Miracle Baby: A Boy Named Phyllis / Frank DeCaro
Class Quartet / Janet Zandy
IN DEPTH Interstate Commerce, New York & New Jersey Bound Moving to Wood-Ridge / Bill Ervolino
Pizza / Michele Linfante
Snowball / Rosette Capotorto
Passaic River Crossing / Flavia Alaya
Lincoln Tunnel: Jersey Bound Salvatore / Amico M. Buttaci
Summer Job / Frank Finale
PART FOUR Changing Direction
Liberating Memory / Janet Zandy
Circolo / Michele Linfante
Bald / Loryn Lipari
Today Your Name Is Mary / Carole Maso
Carlton Fredricks and My Mother Maria / Mazziotti Gillan
Greenwood Lake / Diane di Prima
Elizabeth / Susanne Antonetta
Contributors

Editorial Reviews

This anthology focuses on ethnicity and gender, but it is also concerned with working class culture and literary history. . . . there's enough of interest here to reward most any reader.

Trenton Times

Italian American Writers on New Jersey presents a part of America that is a state of mind, body, and soul."-

Home News Tribune

Thanks to The Sopranos, most Americans think New Jersey is populated by illiterate thugs who can barely spell their own names. Helping to balance the scales is this new anthology of poetry, fiction, memoirs, and stories that presents New Jersey life through the eyes of cultured and gifted Italian American writers.

Italian America

Shows how historical particularity crafts the individual. It is not only Italian American Writers on New Jersey; it is writers on writing, on living, on suffering, triumphing, spanning the gap of society, and coming out whole.

The Montserrat Review

Thanks to The Sopranos, most Americans think New Jersey is populated by illiterate thugs who can barely spell their own names. Helping to balance the scales is this new anthology of poetry, fiction, memoirs, and stories that presents New Jersey life through the eyes of cultured and gifted Italian American writers.

From the Publisher