Dodici Azpadu (born ) is one of the few American novelists writing from a distinctly

Sicilian-American Sicilian Americans ( Sicilian: ''Sìculu-miricani; Italian: Siculoamericani'') are Americans of Italian Sicilian birth or ancestry. They are a large ethnic group in the United States. The first Sicilians who came to the territory that is now ...

and lesbian perspective. She has also published several volumes of poetry.

Biography

Azpadu was born in the Red Hook neighborhood of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

, New York, in the 1940s. Her family emigrated from the Kalsa, an "Arab ghetto" in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for it ...

. She earned a bachelor's degree from St. Joseph's College in New York, a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts a ...

degree at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, where she studied with José Donoso, and a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature at Pacific Western University. She has taught at

Gannon College Gannon University is a private Catholic university in Erie, Pennsylvania. Gannon University has approximately 4,500 students and 46,000 alumni. Its intercollegiate athletics include 18 athletic programs for men and women competing at the NCA ...

, The University of New Mexico's Honors College, and Central New Mexico Community College. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she teaches creative writing. Her poetry, short stories, and other writings have appeared in many literary journals, including ''

Off Our Backs ''Off Our Backs'' (stylized in all lowercase; ''oob'') was an American radical feminist periodical that ran from 1970 to 2008. It began publishing on February 27, 1970, with a twelve-page tabloid first issue. From 2002 the editors adapted it ...

'', '' The Found Poetry Review'', and ''

Sinister Wisdom ''Sinister Wisdom'' is an American lesbian literary, theory, and art journal published quarterly in Berkeley, California. Started in 1976 by Catherine Nicholson and Harriet Ellenberger (Desmoines) in Charlotte, North Carolina, it is the longest ...

''; and in anthologies, such as ''Hey Paesan! Writing by Lesbians and Gay Men of Italian Descent'' (1999), ''Centos: A Collection of Collage Poems'' (2011), and

Mary Jo Bona Mary Jo Bona is an American literary scholar who has written extensively on Italian-American literature and its history. She is professor of Italian American Studies and chair of the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Stony B ...

's ''The Voices We Carry: Recent Italian American Women's Fiction'' (2007). She received a teaching fellowship from the A Room of Her Own Foundation (AROHO) in 2013. Her third novel, ''Living Room'', was named one of the best LGBT books of 2011 by publisher

Carol Seajay Carol Seajay is an American activist and former bookseller. She cofounded the Old Wives Tales bookstore in San Francisco as well as the ''Feminist Bookstore News'', which she edited and published for more than 20 years before ceasing publicatio ...

of the Feminist Press. Azpadu's unique contribution to Italian-American literature has been noted by leading scholars in the field. Romano, Rose. "Dodici Azpadu: Using Omertà to Break Omertà". Paper given at the 25th Annual Conference, American Italian Historical Association, November 1992.

Works

* ''Saturday Night in the Prime of Life'' (1983) * ''Goat Song'' (1984) * ''Rumi's Falcon'' (2005) * ''Living Room'' (2010) * ''Saturday Night: A Novella'' (2011) * ''Wearing the Phantom Out'' (2013) * ''Traces of a Woman'' (2015)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Azpadu, Dodici Living people People from Red Hook, Brooklyn 20th-century American writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American writers 21st-century American women writers American writers of Italian descent St. Joseph's College (New York) alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni California Miramar University alumni Novelists from New York (state) Year of birth uncertain Year of birth missing (living people)