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Welcome to Italian Americana, a double-blind peer-reviewed journal dedicated to exploring the Italian emigrant/immigrant experience through both scholarly and creative works. Founded in 1974 by Richard Gambino, together with Ernest Falbo and Bruno Arcudi, the journal was first published at Queens College, City University of New York. In 1989 Italian Americana’s founders turned over the publication and editorship to Carol Bonomo Albright, who published the journal at the University of Rhode Island up until her retirement in the spring of 2015. The journal’s next appointed editor, Carla A. Simonini, relocated Italian Americana first to Youngstown State University in Youngstown, OH, and later, in 2018, to Loyola University Chicago, where it now serves as a cornerstone of Loyola’s endowed Paul and Ann Rubino Italian American Studies Program.

Although the journal has undergone several changes in editorial leadership, its mission has remained consistent since its original founding — i.e. to publish scholarly and creative works that explore the topic of Italian Americanness from a wide variety of perspectives. Italian Americana today maintains its long tradition of printing innovative articles by historians, social scientists, literary critics, and visual artists, among others, as well as presenting original works of fiction, poetry, and memoir. A number of writers whose early works first appeared in Italian Americana have, in fact, gone on to achieve national and international acclaim, which is a particular point of pride for the editorial team.

Beyond scholarly and creative offerings, each issue also features a book review section, which aims to introduce readers to the most recent contributions to the interdisciplinary field of Italian American Studies. We, the members of the journal’s editorial staff at Loyola University Chicago University, are pleased to be able to maintain the legacy of Italian Americana and to continue to print the journal semi-annually, bringing our readership a winter and summer issue.