by Alice Leccese Powers (Editor)
E.M. Forster observed, "One does not come to Italy for niceness. One comes for life". And there is life abounding in this rhapsodic, witty, and lushly atmospheric anthology, in which forty-one literary travelers train their sensibilities on various aspects of the Italian scene.
Italy in Mind is Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, marveling at baroque Sicilian confections, and Mary McCarthy, celebrating Venice's threadbare dignity. It's Henry James's Isabel Archer, succumbing to the treacherous antiquities of Florence, and Ernest Hemingway's Frederic Henry, rowing across Lago Maggiore. It's the savage isolation of D. H. Lawrence's Sardinia and the splendid urbanity of Edith Wharton's Rome. Comprising short stories, novel excerpts, essays, poetry, journals, and letters, the resulting volume will delight anyone who loves Italy or great travel writing.
Author Biography
Alice Leccese Powers is the editor of the anthologies Italy in Mind and Ireland in Mind and the co-editor of The Brooklyn Reader: Thirty Writers Celebrate America's Favorite Borough. A freelance writer and editor, she has been published in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, Newsday, and many other newspapers and magazines. Powers teaches writing at the Corcoran School of Art and Georgetown University. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and three daughters.