Featured writer Emelise Aleandri is the Artistic Director of Frizzi & Lazzi, the Olde Time Italian-American Music and Theatre Company that specializes in turn-of-the-century Italian entertainment.  She is also an actress, singer, producer and author.  Edwin Mellen Press will soon publish the last of 14 volumes of her series

on the Italian-American immigrant theatre from 1746 to 1899.  Her photographic history books, “The Italian-American Immigrant Theatre of New York City” and “Little Italy,” have been published by Arcadia Press; “Little Italy” is also available in Italian. Visit www.frizzilazzi.com.
    In 1984, Aleandri was appointed Director of the Center for Italian-American Studies at Brooklyn College where she directed bilingual Italian-American theatre.  She created, produced and co-hosted “Italics: The Italian-American Magazine,” the first regularly scheduled television program about Italian-Americans. 
    As an IAWA Board member, she and Robert Agnoli have organized events – such as the Sagra del Libro at Fordham University -- to encourage networking among Italian American authors. They have also formed links with the community of Little Italy, namely the Order of the Sons of Italy, Lt. Joseph Petrosino Lodge and the Basilica of St. Patrick’s to feature an Italian American author table during New York City's San Gennaro feast for the first time.
    Born in Riva del Garda, Italy, Aleandri was raised in the Bronx. She holds an M.A. in Theatre from Hunter College and a Ph.D in Theatre from the City University of New York.
     Award-winning writer, editor and translator Michael Palma is an associate editor of literary journal “Gradiva” and “The Journal of Italian Translation,” as well as poetry editor of Italian Americana.  He has published two poetry chapbooks and two poetry collections, including his latest “Begin in Gladness.” Palma’s poems have appeared in such literary journals as Northeast, Pivot, Chelsea, Café Review, Rattapallax and Big City Lit.
    His translations of modern Italian poets include prize-winning anthologies of Guido Gozzano and Diego Valeri with Princeton University Press, as well as books by Maurizio Cucchi, Franco Buffoni and Luigi Fontanella. His fully rhymed translation of Dante’s Inferno was published by Norton in 2002 and reprinted as a Norton Critical Edition in 2007;
is acclaimed for its elegant rendering of Dante's triple-rhyme scheme into contemporary English.
    Among his many awards for translations are the Willis Barnstone Translation Prize, the Raiziss/de Palchi Book Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Italo Calvino Award from the Translation Center of Columbia University and the Raiziss/de Palchi Fellowship for his translation of Giovanni Raboni, to be published by Chelsea Editions and the Premio Speciale of the Associazione Culturale Campana of Latina, Italy. Born in the Bronx, Palma lives with his wife in Bellows Falls, Vermont.

About Italian American Writers Association (IAWA)
IAWA aims to promote Italian American literature by encouraging the writing, reading, publication, distribution, translation, and study of Italian American writing. Since 1991, IAWA has given voice to writers through its Open Reading series at  every second Saturday of the month. For membership information, please visit www.iawa.net.  To learn more about IAWA, also visit the Italian American Writers Cafe blog at http://www.i-italy.org/bloggers/italian-american-writers-cafe

Contacts:
Maria Lisella, IAWA Board Member and Co-curator
Phone: (718) 777-1178
Email:  [email protected]

Amy Barone, IAWA Board Member
Phone:  (646) 942-4972
Email:  [email protected]

Authors Available for Interviews