Recommended Readings

Helen Barolini

Helen Barolini's fiction and non-fiction has created a bridge between the United States, her home land, and Italy, the ancestral land. Awarded a writing grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for her first novel, Umbertina, Barolini is the author of six other books and many short stories and essays that have been cited in annual editions of BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS. She has received an American Book Award and other honors, has been a Resident fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center on Lake Como, and a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome. Two of her books have appeared in translation in Italy where she has lectured as an invited American author.

UMBERTINA, a novel, Feminist Press, 1999 (Italian Edition, AvaglianoEditore, 2001)

CHIAROSCURO: ESSAYS OF IDENTITY, University of Wisconsin Press, 1999 (Italian Edition, Edizioni Guerini, 2004)

THE DREAM BOOK: AN ANTHOLOGY OF WRITINGS BY ITALIAN AMERICAN WOMEN

FESTA: RECIPES AND RECOLLECTIONS OF ITALIAN HOLIDAYS

ALDUS AND HIS DREAM BOOK

LOVE IN THE MIDDLE AGES, a novel

MORE ITALIAN HOURS, & OTHER STORIES

ROME BURNING: POEMS

PASSAGGIO IN ITALIA, AvaglianoEditore, 2004

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AWARDS AND HONORS
Sons of Italy Literature Award, June 7, 2003

2001 Ars et Literas Award from the American Italian Cultural Roundtable

Visiting artist, The American Academy in Rome, May 2001

2000 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States

Resident writer at Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center,Italy, 1991

Writer-in-Residence, Quarry Farm Center, Elmira College, Fall 1989

Susan Koppleman Award of American Culture Association for the best anthology in the feminist study of American Culture, for The Dream Book,l987

American Book Award of The Before Columbus Foundation for The Dream Book,1986

Love in the Middle Ages nominated for 1987 Washington Irving Book Award in fiction

Americans of Italian Heritage "Literature and the Arts Award,"1984 and American Committee on Italian Migration "Women in Literature" Award for Umbertina, 1982

Member, The Writers Community, New York City, 1977 & 1979

National Endowment for the Arts Grant in Fiction Writing, 1976

Writing Fellow at MacDowell Colony, 1974; Yaddo, l965


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A POIGNANT, TIMELESS SLICE OF FAMILY LIFE FROM

NEWBERY HONOR-WINNING AUTHOR JENNIFER L. HOLM

PENNY FROM HEAVEN

"Holm impressively wraps pathos with comedy in this coming-of-age story,

populated by a cast of vivid characters." ~ Booklist

* * *

"Penny and her world are clearly drawn and eminently believable, made up of seamlessly

interwoven details from everyday life." ~ School Library Journal

Eleven-year-old Penny Falucci plans to spend the summer of 1953 listening to the Dodgers play baseball with her Uncle Dominic and swimming with her cousin Frankie. But the summer isn’t shaping up quite as Penny planned. When it rains, it sure does rain, but Penny is about to find out that just like the Bing Crosby song says…even the darkest clouds may just contain some pennies from heaven. Written by Newbery Honor-winning author Jennifer L. Holm, PENNY FROM HEAVEN (Random House Books for Young Readers / on sale July 25, 2006 / $15.95), is inspired by Jenni’s mother’s childhood experiences growing up as an Italian-American girl in the 1950s. It is a timeless story about families, forgiveness, death, and coming-of-age.

Penny loves her father’s big, noisy Italian family, but ever since he died, her mother won’t have anything to do with them. So she lives with her "plain old American" mother, grandparents and dog, Scarlett O’Hara. Still, Penny gets to spend Sundays with her paternal relatives, and she helps her Uncle Nunzio in his grocery store as much as her mother will allow. She also spends time with her best friend and cousin Frankie, although lately she’s not allowed because Frankie is in trouble with the church. She can’t go swimming at the public pool because her mother is afraid she’ll catch polio, Scarlett O’Hara might be sick, and she suspects her mother may be dating the milkman! Worst of all, Penny can’t understand why no one will talk about her father and the circumstances surrounding his death. Just when Penny thinks things can’t get any worse, she’s involved in a terrible accident that may tear her family apart forever…

PENNY FROM HEAVEN is a heartwarming story about the everyday and the extraordinary. It’s about a little-known time in America’s history when being Italian made you a possible target of discrimination and persecution. But most of all, it’s a story about families—about the things that tear them apart and bring them back together again. Jennifer L. Holm tells this poignant tale with all the richness and the layers, the love and the laughter of a Sunday lunch at Nonny’s house. It’s the best kind of story—one that will inspire both laughter and tears and one that is meant to be shared between friends and loved ones. So pull up a chair and "Buon Appetito"!

PENNY FROM HEAVEN is also available as an audiobook from Listening Library.

Jennifer L. Holm won a Newbery Honor for her first novel, Our Only May Amelia, which was inspired by her father's family stories. She is the author of several other highly praised novels, including the Boston Jane trilogy and the Babymouse series. Jennifer lives with her husband, Jonathan Hamel, their son Will, and a rather large cat named Princess Leia. Visit Jenni at www.jenniferholm.com.

PENNY FROM HEAVEN
By Jennifer L. Holm
A Random House Books for Young Readers hardcover / on sale July 25, 2006
978-0-375-83687-9 (0-375-83687-X)/ $15.95 / $21.00 Can. / 288 pages / Ages 8-12

PENNY FROM HEAVEN
By Jennifer L. Holm
A Listening Library Audio disc / on sale July 25, 2006
978-0-7393-3111-8 (0-7393-3111-6)/ $35.00 / Ages 8-12

Random House Books for Young Readers is an imprint of Random House Children’s Books division of the Random House, Inc, whose parent company is Bertelsmann AG. Visit us at www.randomhouse.com/kids.

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A Stranger In The Barrio: A Memoir of a Tampa Sicilian
by
Frank Urso

A raw an unvarnished memoir set in the cigar-making barrio of Tampa's Ybor City when it was the cigar capital of the world.

To find out more, visit www.frankurso.com

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Queen of the Big Time by Adriana Trigiani
An Authentic Story of the Italian Experience in America

Adriana Trigiani’s latest novel, Queen of the Big Time, brings us to the small Italian American community of Roseto, Pennsylvania, where we meet Nella Castelluca. Nella is the middle sister in a family of five daughters and has aspirations of attending college and becoming a school teacher. As Nella quickly learns, however, sometimes dreams are quashed by circumstances beyond her control and she must learn to seek happiness where she can find it.

Trigiani’s pages are filled with references to traditional Italian American communities and customs. For example, she explains how the town of Roseto was settled by northern Italian immigrants who could not get work among Italians in New York or New Jersey because of their distinctive dialect. Instead, these Italians settled in Pennsylvania to work in quarries and mines. They carried with them their old customs, even recreating the geography of their Italian town in Roseto, down to replicating which families lived next to each other. They also brought their religious festivals, including the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (from which the title Queen of the Big Time is derived). Many of these historical details have been passed down through Trigiani’s own family. In a recent interview, Trigiani revealed that Nella is based on her grandmother who grew up in Roseto and who passed down her stories through the generations.

Queen of the Big Time, more than any other of Trigiani’s novels, draws the reader into the traditional Italian American family. Nella’s struggle between self-sacrifice for the sake of the family and her own happiness mirrors the dilemma which faced (and still faces) many Italian American women. Trigiani manages to reveal how the family can be simultaneously supportive and demanding, even to the extent of suffocating its individual members for the common good. However, Trigiani’s characters are never bitter; they accept their lot in life with humor and warmth, making the best of what they have accomplished and relying on the love of those around them.

Trigiani is to be commended for producing novels that accurately and positively reflect on the Italian American experience while appealing to a wide audience. Queen of the Big Time is no exception and is a must-read for those interested in Italian American issues as well as for those simply looking for a heartwarming story of life and love.

-Jennifer D’Angiolillo, Esq.

COCCIA INSTITUTE
RECOMMENDED READING

By Adriana Trigiani

Queen of the Big Time	Lucia, Lucia	Big Stone Gap
Big Cherry Holler	Milk Glass Moon

 

COCCIA INSTITUTE CONVERSATIONS
with
ADRIANA TRIGIANI

Dr. Gina Miele, Director of the Coccia Institute & Jennifer D’Angiolillo, recently sat down for a conversation with author Adriana Trigiani. The following is a summary of their talk.

COCCIA INSTITUTE (CI): In all of your novels, the Italian American experience is a central theme. To what extent is this a conscious goal of your work?

Adriana Trigiani (AT): I am obsessed with Italian American culture and very conscious of these themes. I am the person in our family who digs out old letters. In a way, I have become a curator of my family’s history, especially my grandmothers. I have a box of letters from 1930-1955 that my grandmother wrote to her family in Italy. My father was a filmmaker, so we also have footage of my grandmother that was used in a TV commercial for Queen of the Big Time. I had based the novel on my grandmother Yolanda’s story, so it was especially exciting to use her image in the commercial.

CI: Were you at all conscious of your Italian American identity when you were growing up?

AT: I grew up in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. In the fourth grade, I write down "Italian" to describe my race. My parents spoke Italian. We had seven children around the table for 6 p.m. dinner every night and attended Mass every Sunday. In that town, however, I was regarded as a minority.

CI: Now you live in New York City. Is the Italian American experience different in the city from the experience in a small rural town?

AT: Italians are Italians wherever you go, but in New York, I am surrounded by other Italian Americans. It is truly a gift and a joy. I chose to live in the city because I need a pulse and to be among diverse people.

CI: Your novels don’t shy away from exposing tensions and tragedies inherent in the Italian American family. What is the message you would like people to leave your novels with?

AT: One message is that even when betrayed by a family member, Italian Americans have a certain loyalty to each other. I have to write what I see, so my idea of the Italian American experience will be unique to my perspective. I am particularly interested in women and the family. I have been empowered by the women in my own family and I want to tell these stories that have not traditionally been told to mainstream America. My goal is to do that while creating something well-crafted and beautiful.

CI: So far, you have reached that goal. What’s next for you?

AT: On October 5, I have a cookbook coming out. It’s called Cooking With My Sisters and its based on my grandmother’s recipes. My grandmother was famous for her cooking and when she died, she hid all of her recipes behind the cabinetry in her kitchen. We only discovered her recipes when doing renovations to the house.

CI: We’ll look forward to seeing that. Thanks so much for talking with us.

If you would like more information about Adriana Trigiani or the Coccia Institute’s Conversation with her, please call the Coccia Institute at 973-655-4050.

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Other Readings

Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani

Queen of the Big Time by Adriana Trigiani

The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl

Writing with an Accent by Edvige Giunta

Crazy in the Kitchen: Food, Feuds and Forgiveness in an Italian American Family by Louise De Salvo

Sometimes I Dream in Italian by Rita Ciresi

Blue Italian by Rita Ciresi

The Secret Book of Grazia Dei Rossi by Jacqueline Parks

The Virgin Knows by Christine Palamidessi Moore

Bad News on the Doorstep by Joseph Cervasio