Mary Jo Bona Explained
| Mary Jo Bona |
| Birth Place: | Chicago, Illinois |
| Nationality: | American |
| Education: | Ph.D., American literature |
| Alma Mater: | University of Wisconsin |
Mary Jo Bona is an American literary scholar who has written extensively on Italian-American literature and its history. She is professor of Italian American Studies and chair of the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Stony Brook University.[1]
Bona was born in Chicago and earned a Ph.D. in American Literature at the University of Wisconsin.[2] After serving for several years as an associate English professor and chair of the Women's Studies department at Gonzaga University,[3] she received a stipendiary award and admission to the Academy of Teacher Scholars at Stony Brook.
She has authored and edited several scholarly works, including The Voices We Carry: Recent Italian American Women's Fiction (1993). Critic Kenneth Scambray calls The Voices We Carry "a significant contribution to Italian American and women's studies";[4] Fred Gardaphé calls the anthology "a major step in the development of Italian/American literature"; and Anthony Tamburri writes that the anthology "blazed a trail."[5] Bona's reviews, articles, and poetry have appeared in American Literary History, Italian Americana, MELUS, NWSA Journal, The Women's Review of Books, and other journals. She published a volume of poems, I Stop Waiting for You, in 2014.[6]
Bona first became interested in Italian-American women's literature in the late 1980s after reading Helen Barolini's influential anthology, The Dream Book.[7] She formerly served as president of the Italian American Studies Association, and served on the board of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS) for six years.
Books
Author:
- Women Writing Cloth: Migratory Fictions in the American Imaginary (2016)
- I Stop Waiting for You: Poems (2014)
- By the Breath of Their Mouths: Narratives of Resistance in Italian America (2010)
- Italian American Literature (2003)
- Claiming a Tradition: Italian American Women Writers (1989)
Editor:
- Multiethnic Literature and Canon Debates (2006)
- Italian Americans and the Arts & Culture (2005)
- Through the Looking Glass: Italian & Italian/American Images in the Media (1996)
- The Voices We Carry: Recent Italian American Women's Fiction (1993)
Contributor:
- "Afterword," The Right Thing to Do by Josephine Gattuso Hendin (1999)
- Taking Parts: Ingredients for Leadership, Participation, and Empowerment (1993)
Notes and References
- Web site: Stony Brook University . Mary Jo Bona, Professor and Chair . November 18, 2017.
- Book: Gardaphé . Fred L. . Fred Gardaphé . Dagoes Read: Tradition and the Italian/American Writer . Guernica Editions . 1996 . 9781550710311 . Bona Fortuna: Mary Jo Bona . 44–48 . https://books.google.com/books?id=azKhA_OCafcC&pg=PA44 .
- Book: Romano . Anne T. . Daughters of Italy: The Journey of Italian American Women Writers . XLibris . 2010 . 9781453547823 . Mary Jo Bona . 64–65 . https://books.google.com/books?id=5R28DDgTAd4C&pg=PA64.
- Book: Scambray . Kenneth . The North American Italian Renaissance: Italian Writing in America and Canada . Guernica Editions . 2000 . 9781550711073 . Review of The Voices We Carry: Recent Italian American Women's Fiction by Mary Jo Bona . 96–98 . https://books.google.com/books?id=9BGkJ5RQ5jEC&pg=PA98.
- Book: Tamburri . Anthony . Anthony Tamburri . Re-reading Italian Americana: Specificities and Generalities on Literature and Criticism . Rowman & Littlefield . 2013 . 9781611476552 . 150 .
- Web site: Paterson Literary Review . Femiani . Jessica . Review: I Stop Waiting For You by Mary Jo Bona . 2016 . November 18, 2017.
- Web site: The Statesman . Faculty Spotlight: Mary Jo Bona . February 26, 2004 . November 18, 2017.
