Rose Romano


Rose Romano is an Italian-American poet, novelist, essayist, and editor. She founded and edited the journal la bella figura, which promoted the work of Italian-Americans. After a brief but successful run, she folded the journal when she decided to live in Italy. Before leaving the United States, she edited an anthology of poems that had appeared in the journal. She is the author of several novels and volumes of poetry, and her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies.

Life

Romano was born in Brooklyn in 1951. She began writing novels at the age of eight and poetry at the age of 14. As the grandchild of immigrants from Naples and Sicily, she often writes on Italian-American themes, and on the intersection of Italian-American and sexual identities.
Her first two books, Vendetta and The Wop Factor, have been widely used in women's literature and multicultural studies courses. As the editor of malafemmina press, she has published chapbooks by a number of Italian-American women poets, including Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Maria Fama, Carmela Delia Lanza, Rina Ferrarelli, and Lenore Baeli Wang. In 1988, as Italian-American literature experienced something of a "renaissance," Romano reasoned that perhaps Italian Americans had finally become "American enough that we can afford to be Italian." Through her poetry and editing, Romano became a key figure in the newly developing field of Italian-American lesbian and feminist writing.
She has published three novels, You'll never have me like you want me, Beyond the Leash, and In braccio alla mamma, several books of poetry, including Neither Seen nor Heard.

Works