Literary Nonfiction. This volume collects the essays presented at The Hyphenate Writer and the Legacy of Exile colloquium, held in February, 2008. This colloquium was born from a discussion that has been ongoing for over twenty years on the themes of exile and immigrant writing, hyphenation, cultural boundaries, the breaking of such boundaries, and bilingualism. The colloquium was divided into three parts: Anthony Julian Tamburri and Peter Carravetta examined the topic from an Italian American perspective; Jeffrey Librett and Debra Cordeiro-Rosa wrote on the Jewish diaspora; William Deaver and Humberto Lopez wrote about Cuban writers in the United States; and Gustavo Perez Firmat closes the volume with his essay on living and growing old bilingually.

The essays in this collection constitute a partial representation of what was presented at the 39th annual conference of the American Italian Historical Association held in 2006.

Cultural Writing. The three essays in this volume originate from a symposium held at Florida Atlantic University, dedicated to the integration of the Advanced Placement exam within the teaching of Italian language and culture. Special emphasis was placed upon Italian-American culture, as shown in the essays included in INTRODUCING ITALIAN AMERICANA: "From the Old Country to the Old Neighborhood: Creating Italian American Literature," by Fred Gardaphe, State University of New York at Stony Brook; "From Italy to the New World: Italian Writers in the United States," by Paolo A Giordano, University of Central Florida; and "Italian Americans and the Movies," by Anthony Julian Tamburri, Queens College/CUNY. Each essay is offered in both English and Italian.