The following is a list of Italian-American women writers.

A–C

Kim Addonizio Kim Addonizio (July 31, 1954) is an American poet and novelist. Life Addonizio was born in Washington, D.C., United States. She is the daughter of tennis champion Pauline Betz and sports writer Bob Addie (born Addonizio). She briefly attended ...

* Carol Bonomo Albright *

Susanne Antonetta Susanne Antonetta is the pen name of Suzanne Paola (born September 29, 1956, in Georgia), an American poet and author who is most widely known for her book ''Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir''. In 2001, ''Body Toxic'' was named by the ''New Y ...

Penny Arcade ''Penny Arcade'' is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website ''loonygames.com''. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have establish ...

Romina Arena Romina Arena is an Italian-American popera, operatic pop, pop classical crossover, rock opera and new-age singer-songwriter. Early life Romina Arena was born and raised in Palermo, Sicily, to a Sicilian mother, Rita and a Roman father, Renato. ...

Dodici Azpadu Dodici Azpadu (born ) is one of the few American novelists writing from a distinctly Sicilian-American and lesbian perspective. She has also published several volumes of poetry. Biography Azpadu was born in the Red Hook neighborhood of Broo ...

* Cheryl B *

Helen Barolini Helen Barolini (born November 18, 1925) is an American writer, editor, and translator. As a second-generation Italian American, Barolini often writes on issues of Italian-American identity.How to count American immigrant generations is a subject ...

Gina Barreca Regina Barreca (born 1957) is an American academic and humorist. She is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of English literature and feminist theory at the University of Connecticut and winner of UConn's highest award for excellence in te ...

* Dorothy Barresi *

Gloria Vitanza Basile Gloria Vitanza Basile (June 29, 1929 September 29, 2004) was an American novelist and songwriter. She was born in Westfield, New York, in 1929 to Sicilian immigrant parents. She studied at San Jose University and the University of California - ...

* Marion Benasutti *

Adria Bernardi Adria Bernardi is an American novelist and translator. Awards * 2014 Independent Publisher Book Bronze Award, essay/creative nonfiction, Dead Meander Kore Press, 2012. * 2010-2011 Christopher Isherwood Foundation Fellowship * 2009 “If looking ...

* Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum * Mary Jo Bona *

Dorothy Bryant Dorothy Bryant (1930–2017) was an American novelist, playwright, essayist and feminist writer. Bryant was known for her mysticism, mystical, feminism, feminist and fantastic novels and plays that traverse the space between the real world and ...

Mary Bucci Bush Mary Bucci Bush (born 1949) is an American author and a professor of English and creative writing at California State University, Los Angeles. Bush won a PEN/Nelson Algren award for her collection of short stories, ''A Place of Light'', in 1987; ...

* Louisa Calio *

Mary Cappello Mary Cappello is a writer and professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Rhode Island.University of Rhode Island, Faculty BiosMary Cappello She is the author of five books of literary nonfiction, and her essays and experimental ...

Mary Caponegro Mary Caponegro (born November 21, 1956) is an American experimental fiction writer whose collections include ''Tales from the Next Village'', ''The Star Cafe'', ''Five Doubts'', ''The Complexities of Intimacy'', and ''All Fall Down''. Her stories a ...

* Nancy Carnevale * Mary Beth Caschetta *

Grace Cavalieri Grace Cavalieri is an American poet, playwright, and radio host of the Library of Congress program '' The Poet and the Poem''. In 2019, she was appointed the tenth Poet Laureate of Maryland. Education * BS - Education: English and History, The ...

* Diana Cavallo * Rita Ciresi * Maryann Zillotti Corbett *

Paola Corso Paola Corso (May 28, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American fiction writer, poet, photographer and literary activist. Corso is a New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellow,New York Foundation for the Arts, Artists' Fellowship - PoetryPaola ...

D–J

Tina DeRosa Tina DeRosa (also De Rosa; 1944–2007) was an American writer best known for her 1980 novel, ''Paper Fish''. She also published poetry, short stories, and creative nonfiction. Biography Early life and education Tina DeRosa was born in Ch ...

Louise DeSalvo Louise A. DeSalvo (September 27, 1942 – October 31, 2018) was an American writer, editor, professor, and lecturer who lived in New Jersey. Much of her work focused on Italian-American culture, though she was also a renowned Virginia Woolf schola ...

* Rachel Guido deVries *

Diane DiPrima Diane di Prima (August 6, 1934October 25, 2020) was an American poet, known for her association with the Beat movement. She was also an artist, prose writer, and teacher. Her magnum opus is widely considered to be ''Loba'', a collection of poem ...

* Grace DiSanto * Beverly D'Onofrio *

Ree Dragonette Ree Dragonette (November 13, 1918 – January 18, 1979) was an American poet active on the New York poetry scene in the 1960s and 1970s. She founded the Calliope Poetry Theatre in 1971 and ran it until 1978. Her poetry-and-jazz concert with Eric ...

Jean Feraca Jean Feraca is an American poet, journalist, and radio host. Biography She was born in New York state, majored in English at Manhattanville College, and received an M.S. degree from the University of Michigan. After college she lived in Rome and ...

* Sandra Mortola Gilbert * Maria Mazziotti Gillan *

Daniela Gioseffi Daniela Gioseffi (born 1941) is a poet, novelist and performer who won the American Book Award in 1990 for ''Women on War; International Writings from Antiquity to the Present'' (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1988). She has published 16 books of ...

Edvige Giunta Edvige Giunta (born 1959) is a Sicilian-American writer, educator, and literary critic. Biography She was born in Gela Gela (Sicilian and ; grc, Γέλα) is a city and (municipality) in the Autonomous Region of Sicily, Italy; in terms of ...

* Mary Gordon *

Rose Basile Green Dr. Rose Basile Green (1914-2003) was an American scholar, poet, and educator. Among her publications were a study of Italian-American writers, titled ''The Italian American Novel: A Document of the Interaction of Two Cultures'' (1974), and sever ...

* Rose Grieco *

Jennifer Guglielmo Jennifer Guglielmo is a writer, historian and associate professor at Smith College, specializing in the histories of labor, race, women, im/migration, transnational cultures and activisms, and revolutionary social movements in the modern United St ...

Barbara Grizzuti Harrison Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (September 14, 1934 – April 24, 2002) was an American journalist, essayist and memoirist. She is best known for her autobiographical work, particularly her account of growing up as a Jehovah's Witness, and for her tra ...

* Josephine Gattuso Hendin * Joanna Clapps Herman *

Ann Hood Ann Hood (born 1956) is an American novelist and short story writer; she has also written nonfiction. The author of fourteen novels, four memoirs, a short story collection, a ten book series for middle readers and one young adult novel. Her essa ...

K–M

* Victoria Lancelotta *

Annie Lanzillotto Annie Lanzillotto (born June 1, 1963) is an American author, poet, songwriter, director, actor, podcaster, and performance artist. Her book, '' L Is for Lion: An Italian Bronx Butch Freedom Memoir'' was published by State University of New Yo ...

Maria Laurino Maria Laurino (April 24, 1959) is an American journalist, essayist, memoirist, and former political speechwriter. Early life and education Maria Laurino, a third generation Italian-American, grew up in North Jersey. She graduated from Georgetown ...

Donna Leon Donna Leon (; born in Montclair, New Jersey) is the American author of a series of crime novels set in Venice, Italy, featuring the fictional hero Commissario Guido Brunetti. In 2003, she received the Corine Literature Prize. Leon lived in Veni ...

LindaAnn Loschiavo LindaAnn LoSchiavo (also spelled Linda Ann Lo Schiavo) is an American freelance journalist, poet, and dramatist from New York City. Her poetry has been published in many journals and anthologies, including ''Wild Dreams: The Best of Italian Amer ...

Anne Marie Macari Anne Marie Macari (born 1955) is an American poet. Life and career Macari was born in Queens, New York. She is a graduate of Oberlin College and holds an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Macari founded and taught in the Drew ...

Karen Malpede Karen Malpede is an American playwright and director whose work reflects an ongoing interest in social justice issues. She is a co-founder of thTheater Three Collaborativein New York City, and teaches theater and environmental justice at the John ...

* Donna Masini *

Carole Maso Carole Maso is a contemporary American novelist and essayist, known for her experimental, poetic and fragmentary narratives which are often called postmodern. She is a recipient of a 1993 Lannan Literary Award for Fiction. Biography Maso was bo ...

Cris Mazza Cris Mazza (born 1956) is an American novelist, short story writer, and non-fiction author. Early life and education A native of Southern California, Mazza earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from San Diego State University and ...

Christine Palamidessi Moore Christine Palamidessi Moore (born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an Italian-American writer and novelist. Life She graduated from Boston University with a Master of Arts from the Creative Writing Department where she studied with Leslie Epstein, ...

N–R

Donna Jo Napoli Donna Jo Napoli (born February 28, 1948) is an American writer of children's and young adult fiction, as well as a linguist. She currently is a professor at Swarthmore College teaching Linguistics in all different forms (music, Theater (structur ...

Anne Paolucci Anne Paolucci (1926–2012) was an Italian-American writer, scholar, and educator. She was a research professor and chair of the English Department at St. John's University in New York City, and a prolific writer who published plays, short stor ...

Lucia Perillo Lucia Maria Perillo (September 30, 1958 – October 16, 2016) was an American poet. In 2000, Perillo was recognized with a "genius grant" as part of the MacArthur Fellows Program. Life and career Perillo was born in Manhattan on September 30, 19 ...

Lia Purpura Lia Purpura (born February 22, 1964, Mineola, New York) is an American poet, writer and educator. She is the author of four collections of poems (''King Baby'', ''Stone Sky Lifting'', ''The Brighter the Veil'', ''It Shouldn't Have Been Beautiful' ...

Anna Quindlen Anna Marie Quindlen (born July 8, 1952) is an American author, journalist, and opinion columnist. Her ''New York Times'' column, Public and Private, won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992. She began her journalism career in 1974 as a re ...

Kym Ragusa Kym L. Ragusa (born February 25, 1966) is an American writer and documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. Early life and education Ragusa was born in Manhattan, New York, to an Italian-American father and an African-American mother. ...

Michelle Reale Michelle (Messina) Reale (January 31, Ambler, Pennsylvania) is an Italian-American poet, academic and ethnographer. Reale is an associate professor at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania Glenside is a census-designated place (CDP) l ...

* Rose Romano *

Agnes Rossi Agnes Rossi (born 1959) is an American fiction writer. Biography Rossi was born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1959 to an Irish-American mother and an Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Ame ...

Suze Rotolo Susan Elizabeth Rotolo (November 20, 1943 – February 25, 2011),''The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia'', 2006, pp. 592–594, Michael Gray, Continuum known as Suze Rotolo ( ), was an American artist, and the girlfriend of Bob Dylan from 1961 to 1964. ...

S–Z

* Julia Savarese *

Nancy Savoca Nancy Laura Savoca (born July 23, 1959) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Early life and education Nancy Laura Savoca was born in 1959 in the Bronx, New York, to Argentine and Sicilian immigrants Maria Elvira and Carlos S ...

Sandra Scoppettone Sandra Scoppettone (born June 1, 1936, Morristown, New Jersey)Day, Frances Ann (2000). Lesbian and gay voices: An annotated bibliography and guide to literature for children and young adults. Greenwood Press. is an American author whose career spa ...

Lisa Scottoline Lisa Scottoline (; born July 1, 1955) is an American author of legal thrillers. Life Born in the Lower Moyamensing neighborhood of Philadelphia, Scottoline attended Lower Merion High School and then went on to earn a B.A. in English magna cum la ...

Maria Terrone Maria Terrone (May 21, Manhattan) is an American poet and writer. She is the author of three collections of poetry: ''Eye to Eye'' (2014), ''A Secret Room in Fall'' (2006) and ''The Bodies We Were Loaned'' (2002). She has been nominated four times ...

Karen Tintori Karen Tintori (born September 1, 1948) is an Italian-American author of fiction and nonfiction. Her books cover a wide range of human experience, from the mysteries of the Kabbalah to the lives of Italian American immigrants. She writes both as ...

Mari Tomasi Mari Tomasi (1907–1965) was an American novelist who portrayed the lives of Italian immigrants in Vermont. Literature professor Thomas J. Ferraro calls her "the first significant Italian American woman novelist." Tomasi also worked as a journ ...

Adriana Trigiani Adriana Trigiani is an American best-selling author of eighteen books, playwright, television writer/producer, film director/screenwriter/producer, and entrepreneur based in New York City. Trigiani has published a novel a year since 2000. E ...

Danielle Trussoni Danielle Anne Trussoni is a ''New York Times'', ''USA Today'', and '' Sunday Times'' Top 10 bestselling novelist. She has been a Pulitzer Prize in Fiction jurist, and writes the "Dark Matters" column for the '' New York Times Book Review''. She ...

Catherine Tufariello Catherine Tufariello (born 1963 in Ithaca, New York) is an American poet and former professor at Cornell University, the College of Charleston, and the University of Miami. Biography She graduated from University at Buffalo, and Cornell University ...

Octavia Waldo Octavia Cecilia Capuzzi Waldo Locke (April 25, 1929 – April 22, 2011) was an American writer and artist who was best known for her 1961 novel, ''A Cup of the Sun''. Biography Octavia Cecilia Capuzzi Waldo was born on April 25, 1929 in Philadelp ...

Frances Winwar Frances Winwar ''(née'' Francesca Vinciguerra; 3 May 1900 – 24 July 1985), was a Sicilian-born American biographer, translator, and fiction writer. Early life Winwar was born Francesca Vinciguerra in Taormina, Sicily and came to the Un ...

(Francesca Vinciguerra)

References

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External links

Malìa: A Collective of Italian American Women
{{DEFAULTSORT:Italian-American Women Writers, List of Italian-American literature Lists of American people of Italian descent Lists of American writers Lists of American women American women writers

A–C

D–J

K–M

N–R

S–Z

See also

References

External links