Mary Jo Bona is an American literary scholar who has written extensively on
Italian-American
Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...
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
Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...
.
Bona was born in Chicago and earned a Ph.D. in American Literature at the University of Wisconsin.
After serving for several years as an associate English professor and chair of the Women's Studies department at
Gonzaga University
Gonzaga University (GU) ( ) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington, United States. It is Higher education accreditation in the United States, accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges ...
,
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";
Fred Gardaphé
Fred Gardaphé is an American literary scholar, currently a Distinguished Professor of Italian and American Studies at Queens College, City University of New York
The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, p ...
calls the anthology "a major step in the development of Italian/American literature";
and
Anthony Tamburri
Anthony Julian Tamburri is the seventh executive director and longest serving with the title of Dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute of Queens College, CUNY and Distinguished Professor of European Languages and Literatures. H ...
writes that the anthology "blazed a trail."
Bona's reviews, articles, and poetry have appeared in ''
American Literary History
''American Literary History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Oxford University Press that covers all periods of American literature. It was founded in 1989 and is edited by Gordon Hutner.
References
*
*American Liter ...
'', ''
Italian Americana
''Italian Americana'' is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering studies on the Italian-American experience. It publishes history, fiction, memoirs, poetry, and reviews. The editor-in-chief is Alan J. Gravano ( Rocky Mountain Universit ...
'', ''
MELUS
''The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States'' (''MELUS'') is a scholarly society established in 1974. MELUS publishes a quarterly academic journal, ''MELUS''. The aim of the Society is "to expand the definition ...
'', ''
NWSA Journal
''Feminist Formations'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1988 as the ''NWSA Journal'' (also known as the ''National Women's Studies Association Journal''); the name was changed beginning with the Spring 2010 issue. It publishes i ...
'', ''
The Women's Review of Books
Wellesley College is a private historically women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the Seven Sisters Colleges, an unoffici ...
'', and other journals. She published a volume of poems, ''I Stop Waiting for You'', in 2014.
Bona first became interested in Italian-American women's literature in the late 1980s after reading
Helen Barolini
Helen Frances Barolini ( Mollica; November 18, 1925 – March 29, 2023) was an American writer, editor, and translator. As a second-generation Italian American, Barolini often wrote on issues of Italian-American identity.How to count American imm ...
's influential anthology, ''The Dream Book''.
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)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bona, Mary Jo
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
American writers of Italian descent