Joseph Bathanti: 4 books

In The 13th Sunday after Pentecost, Joseph Bathanti offers poems that delve deep into a life reimagined through a mythologized past. Moving from his childhood to the present, weaving through the Italian immigrant streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to his parochial school, from the ballpark to church...

In a weaving together of contradictory realms—past and present, rustbelt city and rural/urban South, old-world Catholicism and backwoods Protestantism—Joseph Bathanti draws readers into the 1970s as protagonist George Dolce faces major upheaval in The Life of the World to Come. George aspires...

East Liberty is a poetic, passionate coming-of-age novel spanning 1955 to 1963, set in an Italian-American neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Roberto (Bobby) Renzo, the novel’s fatherless narrator and main character, lives with Francene Renzo, his beautiful, mysterious, and unconventional mother who gave...

“This is the most delicious book on my bookshelf. The poems will make you laugh, cry and wax nostalgic. And the recipes will make your mouth water. No wonder the little stone Buddha on the cover has such a satisfied smile on his face." NC Poet Laureate Cathy Smith Bowers This fun...