The Young and the Reckless: Emerging Italian American Writers Chloe DeFilippis, Marc Pollifrone, and Angelica Roman

Writers Read Series

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

The Young and the Reckless: Emerging Italian American Writers
Chloe DeFilippis, Marc Pollifrone, and Angelica Roman

Three young Italian American writers turn to memoir to explore their complicated—and on occasion even forgotten or secret—Italian roots. Unsentimental, provocative, and sometimes dark narratives dive into and redefine how a young generation of writers finds ethnicity relevant in terms of understanding and representing their experiences. Chloe DeFilippis’s work tells of her childhood and early adolescence on the streets of Bayonne, New Jersey—the blue-collar peninsula of her family’s upbringing. Marc Pollifrone writes about his father as a means of deconstructing machismo in a setting of stark suburban squalor. Writing about her own father’s phantom-like role in her life leads Angelica Roman to uncover the life of her maternal Italian grandfather, who is nothing but a cipher in the family’s memory. The readings will be followed by a roundtable discussion featuring these authors and Edvige Giunta, New Jersey City University.

Cosponsored by New Jersey City University.