Christopher Castellani, of Southern Italian ancestry, recently published his fourth novel, Leading Men, for which he received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, was published by Viking in 2019.  The novel explores the complex relationship between Frank Merlo, a Jersey-born Italian American, and Tennessee Williams. Castellani is also the author of the novels All This Talk of Love, The Saint of Lost Things, and A Kiss from Maddalena, a trilogy inspired by the lives of his Italian immigrant parents. His collection of essays on point of view in fiction, The Art of Perspective, was published by Graywolf Press in 2016. He is currently on the faculty of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. He lives in Boston, where he is artistic director of GrubStreet, the country's largest and leading independent writing center.

Things discussed:

The parts of our heritage we need to leave behind.

Internalizing our family stories.

Research shows that family stories give us strength and build the foundation of our lives.

Loosening the ties to our family stories in order to incorporate some of our own.

How our respective cultures can be comforting and also suffocating.

The beginning of our lives start with our ancestors’ stories.

Writing our family stories as a way to redeem the loss of assimilation.

Leaving behind the parts of our heritage that don't support us.

The same Elemental of our culture can heal as well as wound.

Tips on how to gather and write your family stories.

Resources:

Guest:

Christopher's website

Christopher's books

Christopher on Instagram

Grubstreet

Mentions:

Guggenheim Fellowship

Italian American Podcast Gay Talese Episode 1

Italian American Podcast Gay Talese Episode 2

"Where are the Italian American novelists?" - Gay Talese essay

Bella Figura:

Bella Figura website

Dolores on Instagram