Acknowledgements

My thanks to all the people who read my work and gave me advice. They say it takes a village.

In particular, big hugs to the Inklettes, meeting in the underground vault in Swanston Street: Andy Summons, Ailsa Wild, Honeytree Thomas, Merryon Ryall and Craig Madden.

Thank you too to Antoni Jach’s masterclass participants, meeting in the beautiful boardroom at the Wheeler Centre: Emily Bitto, Jane Sullivan, Penni Russon, Elisa Evers, Rob Hely, Ellie Nielsen, Jacinta Halloran, Lyndel Caffrey, Mick McCoy, Rosalie Ham, Yvette Harvey, Sarah Schmidt, Lawrence McMahon, Jennifer Green, Leigh Redhead, Janine Mikosza, Clive Wansbrough, Patsy Poppenbeek, Anne Connor, Anne Myers, Susan Paterson, Evelyn Tsitas, Glen Thomson, Karen McKnight, Tiffany Plummer, Lyn Yeowart, Mark Baker, Stella Glorie, Jane Leonard, Nick Gadd, Enza Gandolfo, Toby McCorkell, Kathryn O’Connor, Sue Robertson, Pauline Luke, Deborah Wardle and Heather Gallagher.

At RMIT University thanks to Megan Rogers, Lisa Dethridge and Christine Balint. Also, Rachel Matthews, my very first writing teacher.

Most of the images contained in The Fireflies of Autumn were sourced from my own collection. I am grateful to the Ames Historical Society in Iowa for the photo of the Percheron (page 8), the National Archives at Atlanta for my grandfather Vitale Giovannoni’s World War I draft registration card (page 9), the New York State Archives for the photo of a logging cabin (page 12), to John Bland/Wikimedia Commons for the image of a bucket (page 18), to Iynea/Shutterstock for the illustration of a pig (page 191), to the Italian Institute for the cover of Salvatore Andreucci’s monograph (216), and to Wollongong City Libraries and the Illawarra Historical Society for the photo of Port Kembla (page 231).

Early versions of ‘The Percheron’, ‘The Bones of Genesius’, and ‘The Fireflies of Autumn’ were first published in Southerly. The words sung by Cosetta in ‘The Enchanted Glade and the Babbling Brook’ on the night of the dance are my translation of lyrics from the 1928 song ‘Il tango delle capinere’ by Bixio-Cherubini. In ‘The Dinner of the Pig’, the words to the song Derì loves are my translation of lyrics from the 1931 song ‘Signorinella’ by Bovio-Valente. ‘La Storia di San Ginese’ draws on material from Santo Stefano di Villora: la primitiva Pieve del Compitese oggi scomparsa, a monograph by Salvatore Andreucci, published in 1964 by the Istituto Internazionale Di Studi Liguri, Centro Nino Lamboglia in Bordighera, Italy. I’m grateful to the Institute for supplying a copy of the monograph’s cover (page 216). I also wish to acknowledge that ‘The Migrant’s Lament’ was inspired by and adapted with permission from Archimede Fusillo’s report for the Italian Services Institute of Australia on migrants who have returned to Italy, The Future in Their Past, published by the International Specialised Skills Institute in Melbourne in 2015.

My deep gratitude goes to everyone at Black Inc., especially Chris Feik, who said OK, I want to publish this book, and put up with me, and hammered the book into shape. Thank you to Dion Kagan, Julia Carlomagno, Erin Sandiford and Kate Nash, to Mary Callahan for her beautiful cover design and to Tristan Main for his elegant text design and typesetting.

I am of course grateful to all the people of San Ginese, the real one and the other one, for being there every time I go back, whether in the cemetery or in the houses. It’s time for another visit, if I can find the way there.

Never finally, and always first, my love and gratitude to Anna, Sim and Dan, the most valuable people in my life, without whom nothing is worth doing, for their support and just for being around and keeping me sane.