“Amidst the Dust” pays homage to the author’s personal experience conducting research for her MA thesis on Italian-American writer John Fante. Her two months spent in Los Angeles—the city where Fante set many of his literary works—were crucial to developing a richer understanding of Fante’s perception of his identity as a son of Italian immigrants. The essay focuses on the trove of treasures archived in the John Fante papers at UCLA Library Special Collections, detailing daily encounters with manuscripts and personal notes, and reflecting on the nature of ethnic identity while drawing parallels between Fante’s experiences (and those of his characters) and her own journey.