THE STORIES: PRESENT TENSE. It's the day of the high-school prom, and Norm Prescot, a love-smitten teenager, is beset with doubts. Will his girlfriend, Ann, keep their date or will she claim that she has to stay at the bedside of her aunt Gladys, w

Lilith and Ross have always been moving; from Cervantes to Calgary and places in between. Now, middle-aged, the work at home has dried up and they're back in Canada, for yet another new start. As Lilith unpacks their apartment her mind wanders: to the beaches of Western Australia Turquoise Coast, her strained relationship with her family, the love between her and Ross, the ache of missing her daughters, and the complexities of being who she is now - wife, mother, friend, lover, sister, daugther, artist, expat.

Celebrating one of the most important Italian American female authors of our time, Personal Effects offers a lucid view of Louise DeSalvo as a writer who has produced a vast and provocative body of memoir writing, a scholar who has enriched our understanding of Virginia Woolf, and a teacher who has transformed countless lives. More than an anthology, Personal Effects represents an author case study and an example for modern Italian American interdisciplinary scholarship. Personal Effects examines DeSalvo’s memoirs as works that push the boundaries of the most controversial genre of the past few decades. In these works, the author fearlessly explores issues such as immigration, domesticity, war, adultery, illness, mental health, sexuality, the environment, and trauma through the lens of gender, ethnic, and working-class identity. Alongside her groundbreaking scholarship, DeSalvo’s memoirs attest to the power and influence of this feminist Italian American writer.