Rita Ciresi

Rita Ciresi (born in 1961) is an American short story writer and novelist. She is the author of three award-winning novels that address the Italian-American experience.[1]

Rita Ciresi
Born1961 (age 61–62)
New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
OccupationNovelist - Short Stories
EducationPennsylvania State University (MFA)
Period1993–present
SubjectWomen's Fiction - Romantic Comedy - Memoir - Illness and Grief
Notable worksMother Rocket - Pink Slip - Blue Italian
Notable awards2002 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction - 2017 Jeanne Leiby Memorial Chapbook Series Award
Website
www.ritaciresi.com

Early life and career

Ciresi was born in New Haven, Connecticut, a city which serves as the backdrop for most of her fiction.[1] She attended Penn State University, and graduated with an M.F.A.[2]

Ciresi is the author of several novels, short stories, and pieces of flash fiction that have appeared in magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, South Carolina Review, California Quarterly, and Prairie Schooner. She has also had anthologies published by Penguin, Purdue University Press, and Feminist Press. She has written romantic comedies, such as Love on Longboat Key, under the pen name of Meg West. Her fiction has been translated or optioned for translation in German, Dutch, Greek, Polish, and Bulgarian.[2] Ciresi is well regarded for her writing style, and on her novel Pink Slip, she is appreciated for her ability to mix the tragic and the comic aspects of love in a hilarious fashion.[3]

Ciresi has received support from the state arts council of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Florida. She has been in residence at the American Academy in Rome, Hawthornden International Writers' Retreat, Sozopol Fiction Seminars, Martha's Vineyard Writers Residency, Virginia Center for the Arts, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Santa Fe Art Institute, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. She has written the first and final drafts of most of her work at the Ragdale Foundation.[4]

Ciresi has served as a fiction editor of 2 Bridges Review, an annual published by New York City College of Technology. She currently rests as a retired faculty of the University of South Florida, where she was a professor emerita. Her primary mission was to work alongside her prose students in a supportive and nurturing environment to help them produce their visions of a first book. Ciresi served as director of M.F.A. theses that resulted in publication and worked alongside award-winning former students.[2]

Bibliography

Collections and Novels
  • Mother Rocket (University of Georgia Press, 1993)
  • Blue Italian (Ecco Press, 1996)
  • Pink Slip (Delacorte Press, 1998)
  • Sometimes I Dream in Italian (Delta Publishing, 2000)
  • Remind Me Again Why I Married You (Delta Publishing, 2003)
  • Bring Back My Body to Me (2012)
  • Second Wife (Burrow Press, 2018)

Meg West's Romantic Comedies
  • Love on Longboat Key (The Keys to His Heart, Book 1) (Champagne Book Group, 2017)
  • Love on Lido Key (The Keys to His Heart, Book 2) (Champagne Book Group, 2018)
  • Love on the Links (The Keys to His Heart, Book 3) (Champagne Book Group, 2019)

Awards

References
  1. "Rita Ciresi". www.fantasticfiction.com. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
  2. "Rita Ciresi". www.usf.edu. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
  3. Ciresi, Rita (1999-12-28). Pink Slip. Delta. ISBN 978-0-385-32363-5.
  4. "About". Rita Ciresi. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
  5. "BOOK TALK". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
  6. awardsarchive_e47t1f (2020-03-25). "1993 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - First Fiction Winner and Nominees". Awards Archive. Retrieved 2023-08-11.
  7. "Pink Slip by Rita Ciresi". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
  8. "Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction". Georgia Press. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
  9. "Jeanne Leiby Memorial Chapbook Series". The Florida Review. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
  10. "Rita Ciresi". Rita Ciresi. Retrieved 2023-08-11.
  11. "Anywhere in the World – Accenti Magazine". 2022-06-30. Retrieved 2023-08-11.

Fiction

Non-Fiction

Anthologies
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