Salvatore La Puma

Salvatore John Giovanni La Puma (February 21, 1929 – May 8, 2008) was an Italian American short story writer.

Life

He was born and raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. In 1951, he was drafted, and served in the Korea War as a medic. In 1959, he moved to Westchester, and worked as an advertising copy editor. In 1967, he moved to Santa Barbara, California.^[1][2][3] He married Linda Ferrara in 1955; they had six children; they divorced in 1977; he married Joan Dewberry in 1980; they divorced in 2000.^[4][5]

His work appeared in Antioch Review, Kenyon Review.^[6] and Zyzzyva.^[7] He died in Santa Barbara on May 8, 2008.

Awards

• 1987 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction
• 1988 O. Henry Award finalist ^[8]
• 1988 American Book Award

Works

• The boys of Bensonhurst: stories. University of Georgia Press. 1987. ISBN 978-0-8203-0891-3.
• A Time for Wedding Cake Norton. Random House. 1991. ISBN 978-0-517-12513-7.
• Teaching Angels to Fly. W W Norton & Co Inc. June 1992. ISBN 978-0-393-03358-8.

Anthologies

• Carol Bonomo Albright, Joanna Clapps Herman, eds. (2008). "A Marvelous Feat in a Common Place". Wild Dreams: The Best of Italian Americana. Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-2910-9.
• Charles East, ed. (1993). "Mouthpiece". The Flannery O'Connor Award: Selected Stories. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-1524-9.
• Regina Barreca, ed. (2002). Don't tell mama!: the Penguin book of Italian American writing. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-200247-6.

References

1. Emmanuel Sampath Nelson, ed. (2005). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature: I - M. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-33062-9.
2. Fred L. Gardaphé (1996). Dagoes read: tradition and the Italian/American writer. Guernica Editions. ISBN 978-1-55071-031-1.
3. Poets & Writers
4. Salvatore John LaGumina, ed. (2000). The Italian American experience: an encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-8153-0713-6.
5. http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=KZSB&ID=565301388691767311&Archive=true
6. "Inside the Fire", Kenyon Review, 1989
7. "Photograph", "Lightning", "The Four Of Us", "Paradise", Zyzzyva, Spring ’85 - Winter ’08 (Issue Nos. 1 - 84)
8. "The PEN / O. Henry Awards Stories"