[3] He established Crossings Press and, in conjunction with the Society for Local and Regional History, supported over seventy publications on demographic, environmental and geographic facets in Southwest Minnesota.

[5] In addition to numerous reviews and articles in scholarly and popular journals, Amato's writing falls roughly into four fields: First, local, regional, and rural history.

On multiple fronts he has continued to study, teach and write about local and regional history and the power of place in determining experience and identity.

He has written five volumes of poetry, Buoyancies, A Ballast Master's Log;[8] My Three Sicilies: Stories, Poems, and Histories; Diagnostics: Poetics of Time; Towers of Aging (Crossings Press, 2020); and The Trinity of Grace (Legas Publishing, 2020).

His first novel, Buffalo Man: Life of a Boy Giant on the Minnesota River, was published by Crossings Press in 2018.