A Volontà: Blog

1. The Knife of Teodoro Zuccarelli

   February 22, 2020
   My grandparents, Uncle Tony, and Aunt Crair photographed in Mongrassano, Italy, circa 1937. A retelling of a retelling of a family story, published in the Medium collection Open Ticket in 2013. -J 

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2. Milan: Alzaia Naviglio Grande

   February 9, 2020
   I didn’t agree with her on everything, but her Italian was clear and slow and just right for me. She told me that she had been born Maria, but changed her name to Marisa because Maria sounds terrible in the Milanese dialect. Also, she had an older sister who was…

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3. “Caccata”: an untranslatable word

   January 25, 2020
   From Off Assignment, an online collection of personal travel essays, here is my essay, ”Caccata” - about a word with no English equivalent used by my Calabrese dialect speaking family. In it, I go back to my mother’s hometown, Mongrassano, and try to figure out what this word really means…

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