Chiara Barzini (born 1979) is an Italian writer known for her semi-autobiographical novel ''Things that Happened Before the Earthquake'' set in the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...

section of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in the early 1990s.

Early life and education

Chiara Barzini was born in 1979 in

Rome, Italy , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (Romulus and Remus, legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg ...

, the oldest child of film director

Andrea Barzini Andrea Barzini (born 14 December 1952) is an Italian film and television director, screenwriter and producer. He is the son of Italian journalist and politician Luigi Barzini Jr. and the father of Italian writer Chiara Barzini. Filmography * ''De ...

and Stephania Barzini. Her grandfather was the Italian journalist and politician

Luigi Barzini Jr. Luigi Barzini Jr. (21 December 1908 – 30 March 1984) was an Italian journalist, writer and politician most famous for his 1964 book ''The Italians'', delving deeply into the Italian national character and introducing many Anglo-Saxon and Germa ...

and her great grandfather was the Italian war correspondent, journalist, and pro-Fascist politician

Luigi Barzini Sr. Luigi Barzini Sr. (February 7, 1874 – September 6, 1947) in Orvieto, son of Ettore Barzini and Maria Bartoccini, was an Italian Senator and the most noted journalist and war correspondent of the second half of the Italian Belle Époque. ...

When Barzini was 15 in 1994, she moved to the United States with her parents and younger brother, where the family lived in

Van Nuys Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1909, t ...

and she attended Van Nuys High School. When her parents moved back to Italy in 1999, Barzini stayed in California and attended the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

. Later she moved to

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, worked in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

as a waitress, and studied creative writing at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

Career

Barzini has worked as a writer on films, written short stories and magazine articles, and in 2017 published her first novel, ''Things that Happened Before the Earthquake,'' a coming of age ''

roman a clef Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

'' narrative set in the

in the early 1990s. The novel, which received positive reviews from newspapers and magazines such as the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and ''Vogue'', is currently being adapted as a film by

Robert Zemeckis Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy ''Romancing the Stone'' (1984), the science-fiction comedy ''Back to the Future'' film tr ...

. She has been published in a wide variety of magazines including Noon, Bomb Magazine, the New Review of Literature, the

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...

, Rolling Stone Italy, Italian Vanity Fair, and

Marie Claire ''Marie Claire'' is a French international monthly magazine first published in France in 1937, followed by the United Kingdom in 1941. Since then various editions are published in many countries and languages. The feature editions focus on wo ...

Awards

In 2019 Barzini won the San Fernando Valley Award for Fiction from the Friends of the Library at

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

Personal life

Barzini's partner is Luca Infascelli. She has two children, Sebastiano and Anita. Barzini's aunt is the Italian actress and model Benedetta Barzini.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barzini, Chiara Living people 1979 births Writers from Rome University of California, Santa Cruz alumni City College of New York alumni Italian emigrants to the United States