IAWA Presents Poet Rachel deVries and Fulbright Scholar and Author Fred Gardaphe

IAWA Presents
Poet Rachel deVries and
Fulbright Scholar and Author Fred Gardaphe
on
Saturday, June 12, 2010

New York, NY- On Saturday, June 12, 2009 the Italian American Writers Association (IAWA) celebrates its 19th Anniversary with two prolific authors whose works spark controversy and debate - both having used “dago” in the titles of their widely read publications: Rachel de Vries and Fred Gardaphe, who has just received a Fulbright Fellowship to teach a the University of Salerno, Italy this fall.

Rachel Guido deVries' latest poetry collection is The Brother Inside Me, (Guernica, 2008). Her first children's book, Teeny Tiny Tino's Fishing Story, (Bordighera, 2008) won The 2008 Paterson Prize: Books for Young People Award. Other books include her novel, Tender Warriors, and two other collections of poems, How To Sing to a Dago, and Gambler's Daughter. A recent poem, Imperfection, was published in Sojourners magazine, and was awarded first prize in poetry by the Evangelical Press Association, and an honorable mention by the Associated Church Press. She is past recipient of a New York Foundation Artist's Fellowship in fiction. She is a poet-in-the-schools throughout central and upstate New York, and offers workshops for women independently. She lives in Cazenovia, NY.

Fred Gardaphe was born in Chicago and is Distinguished Professor of English and Italian American Studies at Queens College, CUNY. His study, Italian Signs, American Streets: The Evolution of Italian American Narrative, is based on his dissertation which won the Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli/Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs award for 1993 and was published by Duke University Press in 1996; it was named an Outstanding Academic Book for 1996 by Choice.
He has also published Dagoes Read: Tradition and the Italian/American Writer and Moustache Pete is Dead!: Italian/American Oral Tradition Preserved in Print, Leaving Little Italy: Essaying Italian American Studies, and From Wiseguys to Wise Men: Masculinities and the Italian American Gangster.

The reading takes place Saturday, June 12, 2010, 5:45 p.m. to 7:45 p.m., at the Cornelia St. Café, 29 Cornelia Street, NYC, (212-989-9319); www.corneliastreetcafe.com). The evening starts with Open Mic readings of five minutes each. IAWA is a 501(3)©not-for-profit corporation. Since 1991, the organization has given voice to writers through its Open Reading series at Cornelia St. Café every month. For membership information, visit: www.iawa.net

Contact: Maria Lisella
(718-777-1178)
Authors Available for Interviews