For the first time, the Italian American Writers Association (IAWA) and Bordighera Press will share T1245 at the AWP Conference in Philadelphia, March 23-26 and will host an Open Reading at the off-site venue, A Novel Idea on Passyunk, Philadelphia, PA on Friday, March 25. The event will be facilitated by authors and poets Kathryn Curto, Jennifer Martelli, Julia Lisella and Maria Lisella.
IAWA The late Professor Robert Viscusi of Brooklyn College initiated the Italian American Writers Association in 1989 in response to the Yusuf Hawkins murder in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, as the media focused exclusively on the most racist aspect of Italian Americans. By1991, he and poet Vittoria repetto began a monthly reading series that continues today in New York and Boston. Among its members are several Academy of American Poet fellows, award-winning writers, readers, editors, publishers, agents, translators, teachers and scholars. The three rules of IAWA: Read each other; Write or be written; Buy our books to which we have added, Review our books. iawa.net
Bordighera Press publishes italianità in North America from literary works to scholarship on migration and Italian diasporas. Founded by Fred Gardaphé, Paolo Giordano, and Anthony Julian Tamburri in 1989, Nicholas Grosso is the current Editorial Coordinator at Bordighera Press. Bordighera authors have been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, American Association of University Women, Rockefeller Foundation, Association of Writer’s and Writing Program, American Book Award, Academy of American Poets, PEN America, and Poet Laureate Emeritus of New York State.