Author: Finding and Remaking Home: An Italian American Daughter’s Journey

Listen to a local author, Luisa Giulianetti, as she reads from her first book, Agrodolce. It considers multiple renders of “home” from her perspective as the daughter of Italian immigrants. Through poetry, essays, and recipes, the author explores the agrodolce (sour-sweet) of losing, claiming, and remaking home in which grief and joy co-mingle in memory and shape the present. Food—its lore, preparation and enjoyment—is sacred to Italian culture and the understandings of self and place.

About the author: Born in San Mateo, California, Luisa Giulianetti was raised on her parents’ and grandparents’ immigrant stories, memories and lore shared at the kitchen table, and books that transported her to countless places. She holds degrees from Santa Clara University and UC San Diego, where she began her career as an educator. Since 1994, Luisa has worked at UC Berkeley, teaching and directing programs for undergraduates. Her writing appears in Brilliant Corners, CALYX, HerStry, Italian Americana, Motherscope, Ploughshares, Rattle, Tule Review, and VIA. She and her husband live in Kensington, California and are the proud parents of two children.