Pummarola is an online journal of arts, politics and culture that seeks to capture the spirit of what it means to be part of the Italian diaspora, but with an interest in all expression.
We recognize the intersection/crossroads of the Italian diaspora with that of other cultures, including but not limited to Indigenous, African American, Latinx, Feminist, LGBTQ communities, and as such, we welcome work that reflect those experiences.
Pummarola is published by the Italian American Heritage Society of Chicago.
Editorial collective
Douglass DeCandia
he/they
Douglass DeCandia, or Digs, is a child of the Italian and European Diaspora. His paternal side came to this country from Bari and Sicily in the 1920s. His maternal side came from Scotland, France and England much earlier. He currently resides on unceded Leni Lenape territory, in so-called New York State, where he has for the last 15 years been working at the intersections of restorative agriculture and transformative justice. He is a published poet and writer, and honored member of the Pummarola Editorial Collective.
Marci Merola
she/her/hers
Marci Merola was born and raised in Chicago. Though her Italian ancestry spans all of the south, she resonates mostly with her Avellino, Potenza and Triggiano roots. She is a writer and holds a B.A. in English and journalism from Northern Illinois University and a MLIS from Dominican University.
Gabriel Piemonte, Publisher
he/him/his
Gabriel Piemonte is the founder and president of the Italian American Heritage Society of Chicago. He is a communications consultant and writing and editing coach. He received a degree in Communications and Journalism from Suffolk University. He lives in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood with his wife Mary.
Genevieve Riccoboni
she/her/hers
Genevieve Riccoboni lives in New York, where she grew up in a large Italian-American and German-American family. She works professionally in peace advocacy, and has served as an editor for several student publications. Genevieve has a masters in World History from the University of Cambridge and a bachelors from McGill University.
Charles A. Tocci
he/him/his
Charles Tocci is the great-grandson of immigrants from San Donato. He was raised in Massachusetts and has earned degrees from Suffolk University, National Louis University, and Columbia University. He has been an educator for two decades and a writer for a little less than that with work appearing in the Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times, State Journal Register, and Daily Herald.
Founders
Ross Caputi
Samantha Pinto
Contributors
Jack Manno
Jack is an Italian heritage Renaissance Man. He has been a fruit & vegetable “huckster,” a nurse, opera singer, professor of Environmental Studies and writer of 3 books, the latest being: Blessings For Times Like These.
Jack is a loving father, husband and community member and has built deep, caring relationships over decades with the original people of the Onondaga Nation on whose land he and his family live.
Joanna Clapps HermanJoanna has had 19 short prose pieces and poems accepted for publication during the recent COVID time. Some of these are poems about the birth of her first grandchild, Noa Zell Pearlstein Herman. Her most recent book length publication, When I am Italian: Quando sono italiana, (SUNY Press, November, 2019) explores the question of whether it’s possible to be Italian if you weren’t born in Italy. Other books include No Longer and Not Yet and The Anarchist Bastard: Growing Up Italian in America. She has co-edited two anthologies; Wild Dreams and Our Roots Are Deep with Passion. She loves to cook, eat and drink wine as much as she loves to read and write. Her website is joannaclappsherman.com.
Tony Del Plato
Stephen D’Alessio 
Laura Cinat
Anne Ierardi The DiPietras began their collaboration with cohabitation in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC in 1981. 35 years of marriage later, they have written their first book.
I am a Cuban Sandwich first came to life as a one-man show which they produced over 30 times in theaters in Florida and NY. They then had success with the “Ybor Stories; a performance with 15 actors, musicians and crew.
Mike Fiorito
Mike is the author of The Hated Ones, Falling from Trees, Sleeping with Fishes, Call Me Guido, Freud’s Haberdashery Habits and Hallucinating Huxley. Falling from Trees received the 2022 Independent Press Distinguished Book Award (in the short story category). His latest book, Mescalito Riding His White Horse, inspired by the music of bluegrass legend Peter Rowan, is scheduled to be released in late 2022. He is also an Associate Editor for Mad Swirl Magazine and a regular contributor to the Red Hook Star Revue. His website is https://mikefiorito.com/
Mike is currently working on a novel.
Federica Santini lives in Atlanta and teaches Italian and Gender and Women’s Studies at Kennesaw State University. She holds an MA from the University of Siena, Italy, and a PhD from UCLA. She has authored or edited four volumes on poetics and her creative work has been published in numerous journals in North America and Europe. She is the author of Unearthed (Kelsay Books, 2021).
Sara Marinelli
Sara is a writer and audio producer based in San Francisco. Hailing from Naples, Italy, she writes both in English and Italian. Her writing has appeared on New American Writing, Blue Mesa Review, Nazione Indiana, Alias, and other publications. Most recently she has completed “Letters to Italy,” an audio documentary about the immigrant Italian community in the Bay Area during the Covid-19 pandemic. She is the host of Italian Frequency, a show of Italian music and culture at the San Francisco Community Radio, KXSF, and teaches Comparative Literature at the University of San Francisco. www.saramarinelli.com
Beppe Cavatorta was born in Parma and lives in Tucson, teaching in the French and Italian Department at the University of Arizona. He holds an MA from the University of Virginia, and a PhD from UCLA. He has authored or edited several articles and volumes on poetics and his poetry, mostly in Italian, has been collected in 2 volumes both published in 2020: La stanza sgombra [The Emptied Stanza. Massa (Italy): Transeuropa] and Istantanee di un amor de lonh [Snapshots of a Love from Afar. Pordenone (Italy): Samuele Editore]. Some of his English poems have appeared in Bluing the Blade (Tempered Runes Press) and The Closed Eye Open, and are forthcoming in VIA – Voices in Italian Americana.