Saturday, June 24, 2017

Gillan invents a new type of copyright infringement

The Wop Factor was published by malafemmina press and not by Lincoln Springs Press, as Maria Gillan claims. I was living in Italy when I published it and asked Gillan to hold the books in her garage. She agreed.
I've been finding listings of TWF on the internet, saying that it was published by LSP. I found an essay about me written by Fred Gardaphe with a bibliography of only two books that listed TWF as having been published by LSP. We were already exchanging emails and I wrote to ask why he listed LSP as the publisher. He said he had someone put together the bibliography and they put LSP because there was an address for LSP and there was no address for malafemmina press.
I asked Fred to scan the copyright page of his copy and send it to me as an attachment to an email. He did. And it said on his copyright page: “The Wop Factor is published by malafemmina press.”
I wrote to Fred and said that it says on the copyright page “The Wop Factor is published by malafemmina press.” I asked him whether that shouldn't take precedence over an address. Although he answered that email, he didn't answer that question.
All these years, Gillan has been telling people that the book was published by LSP and that I pulled the book from her press. As a consequence, no one reviewed it, no one ordered it, no one sold or bought it.
I sent Gillan a PM on fb asking her why she was telling people she had published The Wop Factor. She said she did publish The Wop Factor but if I wanted to think that malafemmina press published it, that wasn't a problem for her.
I asked her to send me a copy of the publishing agreement. That was about a week ago. [That is, a week before I put this post on Facebook, which was a few months ago.] Her only response was to delete my fb friendship.
Every copy of the book says, on the copyright page “The Wop Factor is published by malafemmina press.” Why would it say that if it was published by LSP?
Gillan admits that she gave me the whole edition—publishers do not give authors the whole edition of a book, unless they pay for it. She would only have given me those books if I had published them, which I did and at my own expense.
Did she print another edition? If so, what happened to the books? Did she sell them? If she sold them, why didn't she pay me royalties? We were in touch for three years when I got back from Italy—plenty of time to send me a royalty check. I was her friend on fb from May to a week ago—plenty of time to send a royalty check.
Did she print this “ghost” edition and then just throw all the books away? Or did they just vanish?
Nothing she says makes sense. She contradicts herself and lies. She seems to think she can determine reality and people will just believe what she says.

I think she needs help.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

excerpt from "Beyond the Leash"

I told Kathy about the baby, about Mirella, about Mirella’s mother and how she had found the courage to go all the way to Genoa, leaving her little town in Sicily for the first time in her life.

I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting it, but Kathy made a little negative face.

“That’s so sad,” she said. “How could somebody be afraid to leave their town?”

“That’s what they’re taught all their lives. That’s what the culture is like. Everyone around them says it’s normal. She’s never even had a job.”

“But it’s not normal. My mother went to Torino by herself. Then she went to the United States. She had a job. What’s the big deal about getting a job?”

“That’s just exactly the point,” I said. “This is what American feminists don’t understand. Okay, it’s unfortunate that she’s afraid. But the point is, she is afraid. She was terrified. But she did it any-way. That took guts. I’d like to know how many American feminists would have the nerve to do something they’re terrified of doing, something that everybody always told them was bad, just because they think it’s the right thing to do. Getting a job in a culture that encourages you to get a job, and tells you you’re inferior if you don’t have a job, is not exactly an extraordinary accomplishment that requires a great deal of courage.”

Kathy looked thoughtful for a minute.

“That’s true,” she said.

“I mean,” I said, “if you can’t resist the temptation to judge somebody, you should at least judge them in their context, not in your own.”

Kathy thought about that.

“You know what?” she said. “You should be a writer. You can see things like you’re other people.”

“I couldn’t be a writer.”

“Why not?” Kathy insisted. “All you have to do is write and you’re a writer.”

“But I have nothing to say.”

“So? Lots of writers have nothing to say.”

I told Kathy about the baby, about Mirella, about Mirella’s mother and how she had found the courage to go all the way to Genoa, leaving her little town in Sicily for the first time in her life.

I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting it, but Kathy made a little negative face.

“That’s so sad,” she said. “How could somebody be afraid to leave their town?”

“That’s what they’re taught all their lives. That’s what the culture is like. Everyone around them says it’s normal. She’s never even had a job.”

“But it’s not normal. My mother went to Torino by herself. Then she went to the United States. She had a job. What’s the big deal about getting a job?”

Kathy looked thoughtful for a minute.

“That’s true,” she said.

“I mean,” I said, “if you can’t resist the temptation to judge somebody, you should at least judge them in their context, not in your own.”

Kathy thought about that.

“You know what?” she said. “You should be a writer. You can see things like you’re other people.”

“I couldn’t be a writer.”

“Why not?” Kathy insisted. “All you have to do is write and you’re a writer.”

“But I have nothing to say.”

“So? Lots of writers have nothing to say.”

I smiled. But that wasn’t really what I meant. It’s just that my life has been so ordinary that nothing I’ve experienced would be interesting to write about. I’d have to do research, research about history, about wars, about other cities and countries, about laws, about terrible diseases, about life-threatening illnesses, about different cultures, about psychology and maybe even religion. All I really know is what’s happened right in front of my face and none of that is worth writing down.

Friday, June 9, 2017

The Poetry of Rose Romano

The following is from an article called “Italian American Poetry Today: An Appreciation in Progress” by George Guida. You can find the whole article on the internet.

“. . . one whose work I place at the center of Italian American poetry, is Rose Romano. . . .she is one of the least visible Italian American poets, but is, at her best, one of the most indispensable. Her Italian American poems, most of which appear in the nearly forgotten 1994 collection The Wop Factor,* cover nearly all facets of Italian American culture and life, especially of life for Italian American women. Poems like “Dago Street” and “Breaking Legs” register the injustice of anti-Italian discrimination in America, as well as Italian Americans’ continuing lament over the depiction of Italian Americans in the media. Other poems like “Ethnic Woman” and “There is Nothing in This World as Wonderful as an Italian American Lesbian” celebrate Italian (and all) ethnicity, as well as its inflections in contemporary gender roles and non-traditional public gender roles and sexual orientation. Perhaps her most important contribution to Italian American poetry is a long poem entitled “Wop Talk,” which explores the consciousness of ethnic identity in contemporary America, a theme I see at the heart of Italian American art, studies and life today.

The range of the poem, and of Romano’s Italian American poetry in general, is remarkable, as is her skill (especially with line breaks in this poem), honesty, and uncanny insight into the negotiation between Italian Americans and “Americans.”

*The Wop Factor is available as part of the collection Neither Seen nor Heard. If you're interested, write to me at malafemmina.press@yahoo.com.

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Beyond the Leash

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Beyond the Leash

Authored by Rose Romano
Edition: 1
The arsenic in the drinking water in the
entire province of Viterbo is over the
level permitted by the European
Union, enough to cause serious
health problems, including lymphoma,
a type of cancer. There are about
1,000 different kinds of
lymphoma, divided into three
groups.

People in the first group can be cured.

People in the second group, if they get
the proper treatment, can expect to
live almost as long as people who don't
have lymphoma.

People in the third group are going
to die pretty quickly no matter what
they do.

Alice thinks she's in the third group.

Maybe she is.

But that doesn't justify what she did.

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Neither Seen nor Heard

List Price: $18.00

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Neither Seen nor Heard

Authored by Rose Romano
Edition: 1 Neither Seen nor Heard, Romano's third book of poetry, includes all the poems from Vendetta and The Wop Factor (both published by malafemmina press), plus many poems published in various literary journals and a few published here for the first time.
The poems focus on the situation of Italian-Americans and protest without apology.

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