Jean Feraca is an American poet, journalist, and radio host.

Biography

She was born in New York state, majored in English at

Manhattanville College Manhattanville College is a private university in Purchase, New York. Founded in 1841 at 412 Houston Street in lower Manhattan, it was initially known as Academy of the Sacred Heart, then after 1847 as Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart ...

, and received an M.S. degree from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. After college she lived in

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

and spent time traveling in Italy before moving to

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

. She is mother to New York City-based experimental musician

Dominick Fernow Ian Dominick Fernow is an American experimental music, experimental musician, poet and multimedia artist. He is best known for extreme music released under the stage name Prurient, as well as numerous other aliases including Vatican Shadow and R ...

, also known as

Prurient Ian Dominick Fernow is an American experimental musician, poet and multimedia artist. He is best known for extreme music released under the stage name Prurient, as well as numerous other aliases including Vatican Shadow and Rainforest Spiritual ...

Career

Feraca worked in public radio for 27 years. She started her career with

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

affiliate WGUC-FM, then worked as a freelance reporter for NPR's ''

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 A ...

'' and ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

''. In 1983 she went to work for

Wisconsin Public Radio Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) is a network of 34 public radio stations in the state of Wisconsin. WPR's network is divided into two distinct analog services, the ''Ideas Network'' and the '' NPR News & Music Network,'' as well as the ''All Classic ...

(WPR) as humanities producer. She became WPR's Distinguished Senior Broadcaster and hosted "Conversations with Jean Feraca" from 1990 to 2003; the show received the Distinguished Media Award from the National Telemedia Council in 1996. Starting in 2003 she hosted ''Here on Earth: Radio Without Borders'', a daily program. She retired from radio in 2012. Feraca's first book of poems, ''South from Rome: Il Mezzogiorno'' (1976), won the Discovery Award from ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

''; it was assisted by a grant from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

. She received a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board for her second book, ''Crossing the Great Divide'' (1992). Her 2007 memoir, ''I Hear Voices: A Memoir of Love, Death, and the Radio'', was named an "Outstanding Book" by the American Association of School Librarians and one of the year's "Best Books for General Audiences" by the

Public Library Association The Public Library Association (PLA) is a division of the American Library Association, is a professional association of public librarians and supporters dedicated to the "development and effectiveness of public library staff and public library se ...

. She was inducted into the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences Arts & Letters in 2012. Her poetry and articles have appeared in journals such as ''

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

'', the '' American Poetry Review'', the '' Iowa Review'', the ''

North American Review The ''North American Review'' (NAR) was the first literary magazine in the United States. It was founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others. It was published continuously until 1940, after which it was inactive until revived at ...

'', ''

Italian Americana ''Italian Americana'' is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering studies on the Italian-American experience. It publishes history, fiction, memoirs, poetry, and reviews. The editor-in-chief is Carla A. Simonini ( Loyola University Chic ...

'', and other journals; and in anthologies such as Helen Barolini's ''The Dream Book: An Anthology of Writings by Italian American Women'' (1985).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Feraca, Jean American women poets American writers of Italian descent American radio hosts Living people People from Madison, Wisconsin Radio personalities from Wisconsin Writers from Wisconsin University of Michigan alumni Manhattanville College alumni American women radio presenters Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women