Wednesday,
January 17, 2007
"Low Italian: Poems" by George Guida
The
ANNOTICO Report
I
haven't read, but I like the concept: Italian Ethnic consciousness, done in
a poetic, satirical, entertaining and unpretentious manner.
Book
Announcement
Low
Italian: Poems
by George Guida
ISBN:
188441981X
Available on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and at your local
bookstore.
Bordighera Press is pleased to announce the publication of
George Guida's first collection of poems,
" Low Italian", a finalist for the Bordighera Poetry Prize.
The
poems in this collection portray the comedy and tragedy of ethnic consciousness
in
They
are written by an Italian American for the enjoyment of all.
Critical
Praise for Low Italian
"'I'm
through being Italian,' announces the title of the first poem in this book.
Those of us who are not through with it
will get a headache from all the nods of recognition that George Guida's sharp and surprising poems will provoke,
as they move from bitter irony to lyrical tenderness and back
again. Those who never were Italian will be given a
rare insight into what it feels like. And everyone will have a
high time with Low Italian."
--Michael
Palma, Author of A Fortune in Gold, Translator of
Dante's Inferno and Poetry Editor of Italian
"Guida is a comic genius who is writing some of the
funniest, most successfully satiric poems about Italian American behavior and
culture, and by extension, ethnicity in general. His work has the
self-assurance of a master: his voice can be assertive, ironic, self-reflexive,
harlequinesque,self-deprecating,
and noble, all the time remaining spontaneous, unified, and faithful to its own
unique vision.
This
live-wire persona might be his finest creation*. Low Italian is an extremely
impressive first volume, a gem box
with any number of gems worthy of being included in anthologies of
contemporary American literature. Guida takes the
entire social, cultural, and political scene as his territory. His deft
handling of issues in Italian American ethnicity should also be of special
interest to anyone concerned with ethnicity itself--which today means, to
anyone concerned with contemporary American poetry."
--John
George
Guida's other publications include The Pope Stories
(The Sutton Press, 2005), a chapbook; and The Peasant and the Pen: Men,
0820467308), critical essays. His writing has appeared
in
Italian Americana, and other journals and collections. He has just completed a
new collection of poems, and is currently working on a novel set partially in
Upstate New York, and on an expanded collection of Pope Stories. A
performer and associate professor of English at New York
City College of Technology, George co-founded and co-hosts the Intercollegiate
Poetry Slam at the Bowery Poetry Club. He lives in
State. Visit his Web site at www.georgeguida.com.
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