Introduction: Why Don't Tell Mama! The Penguin Book of Italian American Writing?
Explanatory Notes and Caveats to the Introduction / Hugo Barreca
From Under the Rose: A Confession
/ Carol Bonomo Albright, Elvira Di Fabio
"Introduction to Rocchietti's Lorenzo and Oonalaska"
Selections, Lorenzo and Oonalaska (1835)
"Sinatra's 'Associations' with the Mob"
"Holy Cards," from Taking It Home: Stories from the Neighborhood
"Buried Alive by Language," from Chiaroscuro: Essays of Identity
"Classic and Good," from More Italian Hours and Other Stories
"My Grandmother, A Chicken, and Death," from Too Much of a Good Thing Is Wonderful
"My Life in Funeral Parlors," from Joy Shtick: Or What Is the Existential Vacuum and Does It Come with Attachments?
From Claiming a Tradition: Italian American Women Writers
"Story of My Weight," from Pray for Yourself and Other Stories
"Careless Love: How Women Get to Hell"
From "Macaronis," from Paper Napkins
"Grandmother," from Poems: New and Selected
"Ossi Dei Morti," from Terra Firma
"Small Acts," from Terra Firma
"True or False," from The Birds of Pompeii
"Useless Knowledge," from The Birds of Pompeii
"The Evil Eye," from The Collected Poems of John Ciardi
"In Place of a Curse," from The Collected Poems of John Ciardi
"On Flunking a Nice Boy out of School," from The Collected Poems of John Ciardi
"Statement," from The Collected Poems of John Ciardi
"Lifelines," from Mother Rocket
"Youthful Religious Experiences," from Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit
From Family Honor: An American Life
"The First Night of the Wake"
/ Lina del Tinto Demarsky
From Leaven of the Pharisees: The Dark Side of Italian-American Life
"I study Italian," from First Pressing
"I stash treasures," from Italian Notebook
From "Ars Longa, Vita brevis?"
"The Depot," from Shadows Burning
"Sabbioneta to Parma," from The Dog Star
From Recollections of My Life as a Woman
From The Brotherhood of the Grape
"Hail Mary," from Dago Red
From Wait Until Spring, Bandini
"The Old Italians Dying," from These Are My Rivers
From The Family of Max Desir
From A Perfect Time for Butterflies
From Tree of Dark Reflection
From Blood of My Blood: The Dilemma of the Italian-Americans
From The Italian-American Writer: An Essay and an Annotated Checklist
"The Tidal Wave," from Kissing the Bread: New and Selected Poems, 1969-1999
"Mafioso," from Kissing the Bread
"Tailors," from Kissing the Bread
"Opening the Door: 19th Street, Paterson," from Things My Mother Told Me
"Secrets," from Things My Mother Told Me
"Cleared Away," from The Gods of Winter
"Money," from The Gods of Winter
"Planting a Sequoia," from The Gods of Winter
"For Grandma Lucia La Rosa, 'Light the Rose, '" from Word Wounds and Water Flowers
"American Sonnets for My Father," from Word Wounds and Water Flowers
"Woman with Tongue Sculpted in Cheek," from Eggs in the Lake
"Anniversary I," from The Collected Poems of Arturo Giovannitti
"Litania for My Mother's Hands"
From "MANAYUNK: Growing Up in Philadelphia During and After the War"
/ Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
"Godfather II: Of Families and Families," from Off Center
From An Accidental Autobiography
/ Josephine Gattuso Hendin
"Who Will Marry You Now?"
"The Discourse of un' Propria Paparone"
From The Blackboard Jungle
"Wear It in Good Health," from The Boys of Bensonhurst
"First Cousins," from Teaching Angels to Fly
From "Words," from Were You Always an Italian? Ancestors and Other Icons of Italian America
From Leading with My Chin
From "Sitdown at the Heartland Hotel," from Lucchesi and the Whale
/ Jerre Mangione, Ben Morreale
From La Storia: Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience
"Your Children Are Your Children, but Your Wife Is Just a Good Cigar"
"Duet," from The Great Wheel
"Show & Tell," from Salvage Operations
"The Old Men Are Dying," from Salvage Operations
"The Lion's Head," from The Art Lover
"Friend," from The Art Lover
/ Christine Palamidessi Moore
From "The Virgin's Nose" (or Picking Up a Piece of the Pieta), from The Virgin Knows
From The Loss of the Miraculous
From We Ride a White Donkey
From Viva Madison Avenue!
From Dances with Luigi: A Grandson's Determined Quest to Comprehend Italy and the Italians
"The Shylock's Wedding," from Italian Stories
"Grandmother in Heaven," from Town Life
"1913," from Anthracite Country
"The Miner's Wake," from Anthracite Country
"Ida Parini (1890-1976)," from House of Days
From The Apprentice Lover
"Someday I Will Read 'Dover Beach, '" from Ciao, Baby
"Perfect Love," from Daughters for Sale
From "The Movies," from Growing Up Sicilian and Female
"Canticle from the Book of Bob"
"Lost Innocence of the Potato Givers," from The Body Mutinies
"Long Time Too Long," from The Oldest Map with the Name America: New and Selected Poems
From The Fortunate Pilgrim
"Dedicated to an Old Friend Whose Kindness I Shall Never Forget"
From Benedetta in Guysterland: A Liquid Novel
From Everything and a Kite
"Video Blues," from A Kiss in Space: Poems
From Huddle Fever: Living in the Immigrant City
"How to Marry an Italian-American Man"
"The Veteran," from The Dance at St. Gabriel's
"Failed Fathers," from The Shifting Web
"The Widows," from Conversation with Johnny
"Song of the Castrato," from Conversation with Johnny
/ L.D. Ventura, S. Shevitch
From Misfits and Remnants