by
Claudine D'Angelo-Dotzman
The Italian American Museum cordially invites you to attend a presentation and reading of Claudine D'Angelo-Dotzman's upcoming novel, Of Asphalt and Earth.
Of Asphalt and Earth is a story of family, immigration and finding one's place. It is a family saga that bridges the trials of life in war-torn central Italy to the comforts and complexities of suburban America through the lives of Anna and her granddaughter, Cristina. Grounded in the true history of Italian immigrants of the mid-twentieth century, the hopes and struggles of these women speaks not only to the Italian American experience but to that of anyone whose storia began far from American shores.
With this novel, Claudine D'Angelo-Dotzman hopes to prove that there is a maintstream audience for literature about Italian Americans beyond the Mafioso and Guido stereotypes and as such is committed to advancing an honest depiction of Italians and Italian Americans in mainstream media. It is an uphill battle, but determination is in her blood. “Claudine is living proof that you have to be very determined, stubborn and patient if you want to be a novelist – what Southern Italians often call capatosta…she writes about the lives of women with humor and good grace.” Rita Ciresi, author of Sometimes I Dream in Italian and Blue Italian.
About the Author:
Although Claudine D'Angelo-Dotzman was born in New York City her storia is rooted in the rocky soil of Orsogna, her family's ancestral home. This storia sparks her uniquely American writing that blends small family vineyards and the bleating of grazing sheep with the hustle of shopping malls and the metallic rhythm of the El.
A graduate of Western Connecticut University's MFA in Creative and Professional Writing program, Claudine is dedicated to the art of writing. Paola Corso, author of Catina's Haircut and Giovanna's 86 Circles has said of her: “Claudine may be an Italian American woman writer but no Meatball Mama is she…Her focus [is] her writing and her writing community…and she has preserved to…flesh out characters in detail so that they complicate ethnic stereotypes.” In complicating ethnic stereotypes Claudine's writing has found audiences both within the Italian American community and without. “Blight,” a chapter from Of Asphalt and Earth, won the International Arts Movement Juried Prize in Fiction for 2010. Her original work has been published in Chick Lit Review and Curator Magazine and her translations of the poetry of Mexican, Jaime Sabines have been included in Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry:A Bilingual Anthology.
Claudine lives and writes in the rolling hills of Northern New Jersey with her husband and four children. When she's not writing or mothering she is an adjunct professor at Passaic County Community and Somerset Christian Colleges.
Thursday, November 3, 2011 – 6:30pm
Italian American Museum
155 Mulberry Street
New York, NY 10013
Suggested donation of $10 per person
** Seating is Limited **
PLEASE RESERVE EARLY
To reserve a place for this event please call the
Italian American Museum at (212) 965-9000
or
email: ItalianAmericanMuseum@gmail.com
