Ithaca College

Anthony Di Renzo, associate professor of writing, will read from his latest book Bitter Greens: Essays on Food, Politics, and Ethnicity from the Imperial Kitchen at Buffalo Street Books today at 3:00 PM.

Set primarily in the Empire State and arranged like the courses of a traditional Italian meal, Bitter Greens meditates on Italian food at the noon of American imperialism and the twilight of ethnicity, exploring such issues as the Wegmans supermarket chain’s conquest of Sicily, assembly-line sausages, the fabled onion fields of Canastota, New York, the tripe shops of postwar Brooklyn, Hunts Point Market and Andy Boy broccoli rabe, and the fatal lure of Sicilian chocolate. This book has won advanced praise from Tony Ardizzone, Sandra Gilbert, Michael Parenti, Lucia Perillo, and Peter Selgin.

Dr. Di Renzo, a fugitive from advertising, teaches classical rhetoric and professional writing at Ithaca College. Cited in Best American Essays, his work has appeared in Alimentum, Il Caffé, Cottonwood Magazine, Feile-Festa, The Normal School, River Styx, Syracuse Scholar, and Voices in Italian Americana. He lives on West Hill, with his wife and cats, and buys his broccoli rabe at the Ithaca Farmers Market.

For more information about Bitter Greens, visit www.sunypress.edu/p-5080-bitter-greens.aspx. For directions and information on the reading, contact Buffalo Street Books at (607) 273-8246. This event, free and open to the public, will be followed by a book signing.