December 2014
Photo © Deborah Lopez.
Maria Laurino is the author of The Italian Americans: A History, the companion book to a forthcoming PBS documentary series, as well as the memoirs, Old World Daughter, New World Mother, a meditation on contemporary feminism, and the national bestseller, Were You Always an Italian?, an exploration of ethnic identity.
Laurino began her career as a staff writer at the Village Voice. She left the Voice to serve as the chief speechwriter to former New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins.
Laurino’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Salon.com, and numerous publications. Her essays have been widely anthologized, including in the Norton Reader. In addition to writing books, Laurino continues her work as a speechwriter, serving as Assistant to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and she teaches creative nonfiction in the undergraduate writing program at New York University. Laurino is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she double majored in English and Government; she holds an M.A. from New York University in English and American literature. She lives in New York City with her husband and son.
What are you reading? What's on your nightstand?
A combination of new and not-so-new books: Orhan Pamuk’s A Strangeness in my Mind, Rachel Cusk’s Outline, Stacy Schiff’s Vera, the letters of Italo Calvino, and The Story of the Lost Child, the final book of Elena Ferrante's four-part Neapolitan series.
Where do you go to get inspired?
When I can, I like to go to an afternoon movie. I’m not sure how productive it is, but I tell myself I’m learning about narrative structure.
What's something that surprised you recently (in a good way)?
That my students sometimes listen to me.
Where do you write?
In a collective space called the Writers Room. It’s a five-minute walk from where I live and desks are available on a first-come basis. If I get up early enough, I can have a desk with a great view of the Empire State Building.
What/who makes you laugh? Why?
My husband and my son -- they are the funniest people I know and we share a similar view of the world. Writers who make me laugh out loud are David Sedaris and Sherman Alexie -- Sedaris for his slant view and Alexie because he manages to make you laugh about the most painful things.
Favorite fictional character ever?
The Wife of Bath. I once checked to see if her astrological sign matched my own.
What are you working on?
Too soon to talk about!
"Laurino (Were You Always Italian?) uses in-depth research to focus on individual stories to tell the Italian-American story. Some spotlighted stories are well known, like those about anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti, New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia, and Frank Sinatra. But the more obscure tales have more impact, like those about Angela Bambace, one of the first union leaders, and A.P. Giannini, a banker who tried to help improve the lives of immigrants. Laurino wonderfully captures the history of Italians in America."
—Publishers Weekly
"Laurino deftly tells her story, while succinctly expressing a feminist's perspective on motherhood and explaining how much further we have to go as a country in order to honor every woman's work."
—Publishers Weekly
"Along the way, she raises essential identity issues: Is there a healthy side to dependency? Why does this nation of immigrants overglorify rugged individualism and freedom? Does feminism fail mothers and children? Sure to spark discussion."
—Booklist
The Italian Americans by
In this richly researched, beautifully designed and illustrated volume, Maria Laurino strips away stereotypes and nostalgia to tell the complicated, centuries-long story of the true Italian-American experience. Looking beyond the familiar Little Italys and stereotypes fostered by The Godfather and The Sopranos, Laurino reveals surprising, fascinating lives: Italian-Americans working on sugar-cane plantations in Louisiana to those who were lynched in New Orleans; the banker who helped rebuild San Francisco after the great earthquake; families interned as “enemy aliens” in World War II. From anarchist radicals to “Rosie the Riveter” to Nancy Pelosi, Andrew Cuomo, and Bill de Blasio; from traditional artisans to rebel songsters like Frank Sinatra, Dion, Madonna, and Lady Gaga, this book is both exploration and celebration of the rich legacy of Italian-American life. Readers can discover the history chronologically, chapter by chapter, or serendipitously by exploring the trove of supplemental materials. These include interviews, newspaper clippings, period documents, and photographs that bring the history to life.
Old World Daughter, New World Mother by
In the second-generation immigrant home where Maria Laurino grew up, “independent” was a dirty word and “sacrifice” was the ideal and reality of motherhood. But out in the world, Mary Tyler Moore was throwing her hat in the air, personifying the excitement and opportunities of the freedom loving American career woman. How, then, to reconcile one’s inner Livia Soprano—the archetypal ethnic mother—with a feminist icon?Combining lived experience with research and reporting on our contemporary work-family dilemmas, Laurino brews an unusual and affirming blend of contemporary and traditional values. No other book has attempted to discuss feminism through the prism of ethnic identity, or to merge the personal and the analytical with such a passionate and intelligent literary voice. Prizing both individual freedom and an Old World in which the dependent young and old are cherished, Laurino makes clear how much the New World offers and how much it has yet to learn.
Were You Always an Italian? by
Maria Laurino sifts through the stereotypes bedeviling Italian Americans to deliver a penetrating and hilarious examination of third-generation ethnic identity. With "intelligence and honesty" (Arizona Republic), she writes about guidos, bimbettes, and mammoni (mama's boys in Italy); examines the clashing aesthetics of Giorgio Armani and Gianni Versace; and unravels the etymology of southern Italian dialect words like gavone and bubidabetz. According to Frances Mayes, she navigates the conflicting forces of ethnicity "with humor and wisdom."