Portuguese and Cape Verdean immigrants have had a significant presence in North America since the nineteenth century. Recently, Brazilians have also established vibrant communities in the U.S. This anthology brings together, for the first time in English, the writings of these diverse Portuguese-speaking, or "Luso-American" voices. Historically linked by language, colonial experience, and cultural influence, yet ethnically distinct, Luso-Americans have often been labeled an "invisible minority." This collection seeks to address this lacuna, with a broad mosaic of prose, poetry, essays, memoir, and other writings by more than fifty prominent literary figures--immigrants and their descendants, as well as exiles and sojourners. It is an unprecedented gathering of published, unpublished, forgotten, and translated writings by a transnational community that both defies the stereotypes of ethnic literature, and embodies the drama of the immigrant experience.

Literature written in English by American writers of Portuguese descent has come of age with the acclaimed work of Frank Gaspar and Katherine Vaz. This study attempts to explore America's understanding of its ethnic minorities, and the writers' own ethnic pride and celebration of their roots. It includes a full length analysis of works by Thomas Braga, Julian Silva, Alfred Lewis, Charles Felix and other voices. Born in Portugal in 1961, Reinaldo Francisco Silva emigrated to America in 1967 at age 6, settling in Newark, New Jersey. He has lectured at Rutgers University, New York University, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Seton Hall University, and is currently Assistant Professor of English at the University of Aveiro in Portugal. His book, Representations of the Portuguese in American Literature was published by the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in 2008. This title is available as a PDF ebook from Humanities-Ebooks.co.uk and for libraries from Ebrary, EBSCO and Ingram.

"This issue is dedicated primarily to Luso-American literatures and cultures from across the US, Canada and the Caribbean, incorporating perspectives from both within and beyond the current set of canonical reference points. Articles on the cultures of southeastern New England are joined by others that focus on Montreal, Barbados, and Curaçao. This issue also features literary contributions from urban centers such as Toronto, San Francisco and Vancouver, as well as authors whose work can be said to be in transit between North America and disparate points in the Lusophone Atlantic (continental Portugal, the Azores, Cabo Verde)."--Publisher's description.

Within the cultural and literary context of contemporary Portugal and Western literature, 1998 was unquestionably the year that Portuguese writing gained international recognition as Jos Saramago became the first Portuguese writer ever to receive the Nobel Prize in literature. Readers who had never thought about Portuguese letters began to consume his books and, most importantly, opted for expanding their reading lists to include other important writers not only from Portugal, but from Portuguese-speaking well beyond the borders of Portugal. Global Impact of the Portuguese Language is a collection of Portuguese writing that is as rich in content and broad in scope as the diversity of its topics and writing modes of its contributors. The book is divided into three major parts. Part 1, "Different Cultural Perspectives of Portuguese Writing," contains thirteen chapters in which the first and opening one, "Portugal: The New Frontier" ably sets the stage for the book by examining from a cultural perspective how Portugal, a peripheral country in the new world system, serves as a microcosm of the problems of cultural intercommunication in today's world. Subsequent chapters are grouped in three categories: "The Voices of the Writers," "Critical Approaches to Cames," and "Fictionalizing the Nation." Part 2, "Portuguese Language and Literature Outside Portugal," comprises one section devoted to the Portuguese language in Africa, followed by studies about Portuguese discoveries as part of the historical process of remembering and forging one's identity, and finally a comprehensive historical development of Portuguese writing, both in Portuguese and English, in the United States. Part 3, "Portuguese Literature and Criticism Available in English: Suggested Readings" details the recent literary happenings which point to a possible renaissance in Portuguese literary production. The concluding part of this volume offers a short, comprehensive listing of anthologies, general studies, and the most popular translations of the best of Portuguese writing from Portugal and Africa. This lively volume constitutes a first pioneering effort to contribute to a deepening appreciation and understanding of Portuguese writing. Anyone interested in ethnic writing will find this book an invaluable education resource with which to begin an exploration of Portuguese writing in the United States. Asela Rodriguez de Laguna is associate professor of Spanish and director of the Hispanic Civilization & Language Studies Program. She is the author of Notes on Puerto Rican Literature: Images and Identities: An Introduction, and editor of Images and Identities: The Puerto Rican in Two World Contexts.

Presenting experimental and boundary-breaking prose from women, people of color, and LGBTQ writers, Behind the Stars, More Stars imagines a more diverse and inclusive Luso-American and Portuguese-American literary scene, which has traditionally been dominated by male voices. Since its first "Writing the Luso Experience" workshops were held in 2011, Dzanc Books's Disquiet International Literary Program in Lisbon has aimed to break silences within today's Luso-American communities. Disquiet faculty Katherine Vaz and Frank X. Gaspar appear alongside up-and-coming writers from the workshops, such as Traci Brimhall, Megan Fernandes, Hugo Dos Santos, and previously unpublished women writers.