Daniela Gioseffi

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Daniela Gioseffi (b. 1941-) is an American Book Award [1] winning poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, performer, and editor of the not-for-profit literary website, PoetsUSA[2], as well as one of the first Italian American women writers to be widely published in the main stream of American poetry. She has published ten books of poetry and prose and won a PEN American Center’s Short Fiction prize 1995, as well as The John Ciardi Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry. Her verse has been etched in marble on a wall of the 7th Avenue Concourse of New York City’s Penn Station, next to verses by Walt Whitman and William Carlos Williams. She has been featured on the Library of Congress Radio Show, The Poet and the Poem [3] which features other prize winning poets of accomplishment, including the Poets Laureate of the USA, sponsored by The National Endowment for the Arts. She has been featured several times on National Public Radio and the BBC from London to Oxford. Gioseffi has presented her work on campuses and in cultural centers throughout the United States, and, is particularly known for her women’s studies classic Women on War: International Writings from Antiquity to the Present [4] which features many Nobel Laureates of World Literature as well as lesser known women of various countries in a multicultural edition of stories, poems, memoirs, essays and excerpts. First published in 1988 during the Cold War, by Touchstone/Simon & Schuster: NY, it was re-issued in an all new edition at the dawn of the Iraq War with many women of the Mid-East added, by The Feminist Press of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 2003. It was the first book of world literature to gather the global voices of women on the issues of war effecting their lives. It won the American Book Award in 1990 [5] and has been in print ever since. Women on War was translated into German and published in Vienna where it sold as well as it did in the United States. Gioseffi’s biography appears in Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975[6], an encyclopedia from the University of Illinois Press. She is also included in Who's Who in America, The Directory of American Poets & Writers[7], and Contemporary Authors, as well as several other sources on the internet.

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[edit] Career

A peace and social justice activist, Gioseffi began her career as a Civil Rights worker and journalist for WSLA-TV in Selma, Alabama in 1961 during the era of The Freedom Riders and Sit-in demonstrations for integration and fairness for blacks of the Deep South of the United States. Gioseffi was also a professional actress, dancer, and singer before becoming a writer. Gioseffi was graduated from Montclair University in New Jersey with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English, 1963. Though she is a noted Free Thinker or Humanist, she was awarded a scholarship to The Catholic University of America with a Master of Fine Arts in World Drama, 1977, for her abilities as an actress and academic excellence. Her first writings were for the stage. She won a multimedia award from The New York State Council for the Arts, funded by The National Endowment for the Arts for her poetic plays Care of the Body and The Sea Hag in the Cave of Sleep in 1971 produced Off-Broadway in New York City. They are bost feminist playlets in theme. Prior to that she has played in classical roles, Shakespeare, Congreve, Moliere, with the National Players’ Touring Repertory Company out of Washington, D.C. (1964-66.) In 1977, Gioseffi won another award grant funded by The New York State Council for the Arts, of The National Endowment for the Arts, this time for poems written for the page that are contained in her first collection of poetry, Eggs in the Lake,[8] published by Boa Editions, a distinguished American Poetry Press. The book was prefaced with an introduction by the accomplished poet, John Logan.[9] Subsequently, Gioseffi edited On Prejudice; A Global Perspective (Anchor/Doubleday: NY, 1993) [10] and the book of world literature is widely used in various universities as a multicultural text against xenophobia of every kind. It was awarded a Plougshares Peace Foundation grant as was Women on War her feminist studies book, mentioned above, and has been presented at The United Nations, as was Women on War. On Prejudice; A Global Perspective, [11] was translated into Japanese and published in Tokyo where it was also used in many colleges and universities to teach tolerance against all forms of xenophobia and mono-culturalism.

Gioseffi has seen published four more collections of poetry, besides a novel, novella and volume of short fiction, her most recent being Blood Autumn: Autunno di sangue, [12] a bilingual edition of new and selected poems, translated into Italian by five prominent Italian poets and professors of Italian Language and Literature: Elisa Biagini, Luigi Bonaffini, Ned Condini, Luigi Fontanella, and Irene Marchegiani by VIA Folios/ Bordighera Press of The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute of The City University of New York.[13] Gioseffi has been a featured speaker at The First International Women's Book Fair in Barceloma, and at book fairs from Miami to Venice, Barcelona to London, to New York City. She was also a poet/consultant to the Poets-in-Public Service program, sponsored by The New York State Council for the Arts, performing residences in Public Schools, Prisons, Senior Centers and Colleges from 1972 to 1986, and received a Partner in Education Award from The Board of Education of the City of New York. Before retiring from teaching in 1962, she taught at Brooklyn College, Pace University, New York University’s Publishing Institute, and The Manhattan's College of Visual Arts, and has received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Education from The Association of Italian American Educators, 2003 [14].

[edit] Early years: biographical details

Daniela Gioseffi was born in 1941 in Orange, New Jersey, the daughter of a Greek-Albanian Italian immigrant father, Daniel Donato Gioseffi, one of the first Italian immigrants to win a Phi Beta Kappa in the United States from the alpha chapter of Union College in Schenectady. Her mother was a war orphan of Polish and Russian Jewish descent who worked as a seamstress and dress designer. Because of her mother's orphan status, and her father's large Italian family, Gioseffi grew up with a strong imprint of Italian American culture. She grew up in Newark and attended Avon Avenue Public School, later moving to Little Falls, New Jersey, where she attended Passaic Valley High School and served as valedictorian of her graduating class of 1959. She was a member of the Honor Society, served on the twirling or drum majorette squad, and as a president of The Girls’ Athletic Association. Active in the drama club as a leading actress in several school plays, she co-edited the school newspaper writing several editorials of sociopolitical community concern. Next, she attended Montclair University to graduate near the top of her class and to be active in college theatre productions, holding leading roles and majoromg in English Literature and Speech and Theatre, and was graduated in 1963. While at Montclair University, she began publishing poetry in the campus literary magazine. She won a scholarship to study World Drama at the well known Speech and Theatre Department of The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at CUA, Washington, D.C., with such luminaries as Philip Bosco and the Academy Award winning actress, Susan Sarandon, as classmates. During the next several years she published in various literary magazines, placing poems in such venues as The Paris Review, The Nation, Poetry East, Chelsea Literary Review, Choice --throughout the late 1960's and 70s, Her first novel with Doubleday, Dell, and New English Library, a feminist comedy titled The Great American Belly Dance was optioned for a screen play by Warner Bros. That first novel won her favorable reviews, most notably from Pulitzer and National Book Award Winning author, Larry McMurtry in The Washington Post. The book also earned her a tour of the United States and England, 1977-1979, during which Gioseffi was interviewed by various popular hosts of NPR and BBC radio and television both in the USA and Europe. She traveled widely in the US and Europe presenting a multimedia piece, The Birth Dance: A Celebration of Women and the Earth in Poetry, Music and Dance, for the New Feminist Talent Agency through the 1970's and 80's.

After publishing Eggs in the Lake her first collection of poems, 1979, [15], she traveled the US giving readings and presentations of her work on numerous campuses. Gioseffi has lived the rest of her writing life in Brooklyn Heights New York City, where she created the First Brooklyn Bridge Poetry Walk--now produced by Poets House every year as a spring fund raiser. For decades, Gioseffi has been a member of Poets House, The Poetry Society of America, The Academy of American Poets, PEN American Center, and The National Book Critics Circle, as well as The Freedom from Religion Foundation. Among the notable poets who have written favorably of Gioseffi’s work and writings are Galway Kinnell, Robert Bly, D. Nurkse, Bob Holman, Milton Kessler, Philip Appleman, and Grace Paley.

[edit] Published & produced works

  • Care of the Body, and The Sea Hag in the Cave of Sleep, 1971, The Cubiculo Theatre, sponsored by The New York State Council for the Arts, Creative Artists Public Service Program, New York City.
  • The Sea Hag in the Cave of Sleep, a dramatic monologue for three voices, and Violence and Violins, 1972, Theatre at St. Clements, New York City, sponsored by The Creative Writers Public Service Program, of the New York State Council for the Arts.
  • The Brooklyn Bridge Poetry Walk, 1971, sponsored by The Creative Artists Public Service Program, The New York State Council for the Arts,
  • The Great American Belly…, a novel 1977 (Doubleday: NY, New English Library, London.)
  • Eggs in the Lake; Poems, 1977 (Boa Editions; Rochester, NY.) [16]
  • Earth Dancing; Mother Nature’s Oldest Rite, non-fiction treatise 1980 (Stackpole Books, PA.)
  • Women on War: International Writings for the Nuclear Age, 1988 (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster: NY.)
  • Guide to Northwest Jersey Wildlife: Flora and Fauna, 1994,(Skylands Association, NJ.)
  • Word Wounds and Water Flowers; Poems, (Bordighera Press, Purdue University, 1995.) [17]
  • In Bed with the Exotic Enemy: Stories & Novella, 1995 (Avisson Bks., Greensboro: NC.)
  • Going On, Poems, 2000 (Rattapallax Press: New York, NY)
  • Women on War: International Writings from Antiquity to the Present, 2003, Feminist Press, [18] Graduate Center of the City University of New York.)
  • Blood Autumn: Autunno di sangue, New & Selected Poems, 2006 [19] (VIA Folios, Bordighera Press, John D. Calandra Institute, Graduate Center, City University of New York.) [20]
  • Emily Dickinson: Lover of Science and Scientist in Dark Days of the Republic, essay, Chelsea Literary Review, Number 81, New York City.
  • Wild Nights; A Biographical Novel of the Life of Emily Dickinson, 2007, soon to be published.
  • Work in Progress: “Guinea” Female Writer in New York, memoir 1967-2008.

[edit] References and sources