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The American's Team

Good writers are hard to find. The American has been fortunate beyond measure to assemble a group of veteran journalists and younger writers. Since the magazine began publishing online in 2004, some have written once, others dozens of times. But each has done his or her part with enthusiasm and a commitment to professional ethics.

Below you'll find a list of the most recent contributors to the project (in all, we've published some 200 writers). Some live in Italy while others write from afar. A list of their published work for us may be found below their brief biographies. We do not list the personal email addresses of our writers at their request. Some have blogs and personal sites, and many of those are also listed. The writers are responsible for the content of their personal biographies and are also accountable for their spirit and accuracy. Errors in fact, however, are the full responsibility of the magazine. Point them out and we'll correct them.

If you wish to get in touch with one of our writers about their work you may write to them maginfo@theamericanmag.com and your message will be forwarded to them in due course. Whether they choose to answer is up to them.

Finally, while all content has been vetted and edited, the views represented in our reports, interviews, profiles, and first-person columns represent those of the authors and not the magazine. The American is a forum for ideas about Italy and the world around it. It's also a venue where expatriates can read about what their fellows are thinking. If you'd like to join our team, write to us at the maginfo address and we'll open up a conversation. Eloquence and insight is what we seek and what we hope to have provided so far. Our magazine is the sum of its wonderfully disparate parts. It is "old school" in that it does not represent a forum for reader ideas and "quickie" feedback. Nor is it a blog. Instead, it is a kind of "log," which we see as an effort to compile many life narratives, some from Italy, others not. With luck, bits of wisdom follow suit.

—Christopher P. Winner, editor and publisher


Sam Alberts "Apicius"	Sam was born and raised in New York, N.Y., and made his first trip to Rome during his freshman year of high school, and from there his interest for the city only grew. After studying Classics and Art History at Davidson College, he seized the opportunity to return to Rome for a summer internship in 2008. Not finding two months sufficient time to delve into the city's history and culture, Sam remained in Rome. He now leads private tours, writes, and works as an apprentice in a well known restaurant. See Sam's blog

Lynda Albertson "Lynda's Wine"	Associate editor Lynda Albertson was born and raised in the Little Havana section of Miami. Though she never planned to be a "writer," affection for American Beat Generation authors led her to first love, poetry and later to love prose. Her writing has appeared in online books and print publications. She is also a founding member of Café.Blue one of the longest-running literary list-servs on the net. A weakness for travel and a fascination for wine led her to Rome, where she writes articles on food, wine, living and travelling as well as foundation grants for the non-profit American Institute For Roman Culture. She has taught writing and business communication courses in classrooms and corporate board rooms but prefers to spend her time in vineyards. Tomorrow is her favorite day of the week.

Nicole Arriaga "Bella Figura"	Nicole Arriaga graduated from the Florida International University in Miami with a BA in Mass Communications. While completing her degree, she worked part-time as a news writer for a local television station in Miami and freelanced for The Miami Herald. Later, she was a producer for an NBC television affiliate. Arriaga came to Rome to earn her MA in International Relations at St. John's University. In her spare time, she enjoys reading books by Paulo Coelho, watching foreign films, and catching up with friends over an aperitivo.

Mark Berghold Creative Director	Mark Berghold (right) is a freelance designer with over two decades of experience in interactive and print design. Berghold is a graduate of Kenyon College where he received a BA in Classical History. When he's not teaching history at South Kent School in South Kent, CT, he may be found tending Elisabetta (his Turin-born spouse), their two boys (Michael and Nicholas), his flock of Merino sheep, beehives, rabbits, chickens, vineyard or orchard.

Marc Alan Di Martino "Man About Rome"	Marc Alan Di Martino was born in Massachusetts and grew up in suburban Baltimore. He studied painting at Virginia Commonwealth University before leaving for New York City, where he spent the next eight years. He has published in Pivot, a literary journal in Brooklyn, and on the side of the food cart at 6th Ave. & 45th St. in midtown Manhattan. He has also been published in BigCityLit, an online poetry journal. He is not a specialist, connoisseur, maven, or aficionado of any sort of food or drink. He lives in Rome where he writes, keeps a blog (see below) and studies Yiddish. Marc's blog

Kissy Dugan "Parenthood"	Kissy Dugan started her career at the age of four at Delaney's Irish Pizza Pub where she sang back up for a band... of midgets... dressed as leprechauns. From there, a career in comedy was inevitable. As a comic, Kissy's work appeared regularly at all of L.A.'s famous clubs like Laugh Factory, Comedy Store and The Improv. She has performed her comedy all over the United States and eight countries in Europe. As a writer, Kissy has worked in many capacities including: indie film, stage and public relations. She now takes her new experience as a mother to the pages of The American.

Suzanne Dunaway "Suzanne's Taste"	Suzanne Dunaway is the author and illustrator of "Rome, At Home, The Spirit of la cucina romana in Your Own Kitchen" (Broadway Books) and "No Need To Knead, Handmade Italian Breads in 90 Minutes" (Hyperion). She has had illustrations published in The New Yorker, Gourmet, Bon Appetit and the Los Angeles Times. See Suzanne's site

Nancy Feyen "Due Diligence"	Nancy Feyen has a BA, BM and MM, all from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She was working on a doctorate in piano performance when she traveled to Italy. She met her husband and never moved back. Feyen’s two children attend university in Milan. She has played chamber music and worked as a vocal and ballet accompanist. She also teaches music.

Erica Firpo "Pets Abroad"	Erica Firpo is a freelance travel and culture writer based in Rome with her husband, daughter and faithful sidekick Bella. Her writing projects have taken her around the equator (and even on it) from the temples of Angor Wat to South Central LA. Her recent projects include Fodor's Rome, Luxe City Guides and National Geographic Travel, as well as writing art reviews for Zing and other U.S.-based magazines.

Patricia E. Fogarty "Scriptorium"	Ex-Rabelais scholar, "Scriptorium" boss Fogarty skipped from degreeland to clock-filling doublejobs in NYC: ghetto teaching; freelance copyediting Prentice Hall. The next, Italian experience added translation word games. In Rome, jump-started an Italian publisher’s English-language series, cinema-slanted. Over years, time snatched for travel pieces, short stories, placed wherever they fell. "Scriptorium": a few monthly grafs from an over-booked head.

Julia Gabrick Writer	Julia Gabrick graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 2006 with a degree in European Studies. Determined to recreate the non-stop adventure that was junior year in Perugia, she moved to Salo', on Lake Garda, to teach high school English in 2007. Although she has since returned to the U.S., she's always looking for a way to live permanently in Italy without marrying anyone.

Stephanie Gruner Writer	Stephanie Gruner is a freelance writer who divides her time between Lucca, Italy and Tbilisi, Georgia. In the Caucasus, she produces a weekly radio show on politics, business, social issues and culture. Previously, she wrote a travel column for the Wall Street Journal Europe. Before moving to Italy in 2002, she was a staff reporter at the Wall Street Journal in London, where she covered Internet, media and technology, and also appeared regularly on CNBC Europe. Prior to the WSJ, she was a staff writer at Inc. magazine, a U.S. publication for entrepreneurs.

Enrico Jacomini Direttore Responsabile	Enrico Jacomini was born in New York, May 2, 1941. He worked for over 31 years in the Rome bureau of The Associated Press. He was then Chief of Staff of the IAAF, the world track and field body, and Secretary General of the International Athletics Foundation in Monaco. He retired in 1997, but returned to become president of Venice Marathon, Italy's leading marathon. He is a consultant for several sports and editorial organizations.

Kristi James Writer	Kristi and her husband, Massimo, have a home and farm in the Abruzzo but are currently living in Seattle, Washington. They spent a year working on the farm with Massimo's family before realizing they were better suited for city life. Kristi writes cultural humor essays and book reviews. Her work can be found in Christian Science Monitor, You and Me Magazine, Six Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak (January '09), and right here.

Madeleine Johnson "Milan Notebook"	Associate editor Madeleine Johnson is an unrepentant midwesterner who has lived in Italy — with a two-year break in Paris — since 1988. She has degrees in art history from Wellesley College and U.C. Berkeley. To her monthly column for the American, she brings two decades of thought and research on a wide range of Italian social and political matters, including education, history, politics, literature and culture. She has written about Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for the New York Post and is a frequent contributor to the Financial Times, for whom she writes on numerous matters including Italian real estate, urban growth, confiscation of Mafia property as well as travel and food. She lives in Milan.

Madeline Klosterman "American Girl"	Madeline Klosterman was born in Dayton, Ohio in corn and soybean country. As the youngest of 14, she strictly followed the edicts of family order theory and ran off to see the world upon turning 18. She has traveled Europe and the United States, lived in San Francisco, Seattle, and Southern California. She came to New York in 1999 and studied creative writing at the Writers Studio in the West Village. She loves art, nature, vodka martinis and Brazilian music. Spurning Manhattan, she lives in Brooklyn (in Walt Whitman's old neighborhood) and hangs out where artists and musicians continue to thrive and inspire her.

Katie McGovern Writer	Associate editor Katie McGovern is from Connecticut. She graduated from Harvard with a BA in English and American Literature, received a masters in International Affairs on a Fulbright scholarship in Germany, and an MBA from INSEAD on a Rotary Scholarship in France. She resides in Rome with her Italian husband.

Luisa Milanese Writer and Listings Editor	Luisa Milanese is a true Milan native. For a decade she worked in public relations. In 1998, she joined Italy Daily, a daily newspaper published in English by Rizzoli and the International Herald Tribune, where she wrote the culture listings page. After its closing, she was hired by the monthly magazine Capital and later by Style, a monthly men's magazine of Corriere della Sera. After two years in Condé Nast, she is now working as a fashion producer for A, weekly magazine published by Rizzoli. Luisa loves reading, going to the movies or to art exhibits and, above all, traveling.

Clare Pedrick "View from Spoleto"	Clare Pedrick is a British journalist who has lived in Italy for nearly 20 years. She is a former Washington Post correspondent and ex-European Editor for the features agency, World News Link. She is now editor of Spore, a magazine on agriculture and development, as well as a freelance contributor to other publications. She lives in Spoleto with her Italian husband and three young children.

John Pitonzo Writer	John Pitonzo is a literature and drama teacher at the International School of Florence. He has a monthly column, Postcard From Florence, with Calcio Italia, a British football magazine, that exclusively covers Italy. John runs a small farm in the Chianti in his spare time.

Amanda Ruggeri "La Straniera"	Growing up, Amanda Ruggeri lived on a mountain in Vermont in the winter, on a boat in Maine in the summer, in Rochester, N.Y. on off-seasons, and in her books at every moment in between. The peripatetic lifestyle — and love of writing — stuck with her. After a degree in history from Yale and an M.Phil in international relations from Cambridge, she moved to Washington to cover politics and the economy for U.S. News & World Report before deciding that her life needed more exposure to 15th-century churches, ancient ruins and Berlusconi-style politics. Now a freelance writer in Rome, she continues to hone her ability to cross the street without a "walk" signal.

Annie Shapero "Annie's Kitchen"	Descended from a long line of gourmets, Annie has food and wine in her DNA. A nationally certified Italian sommelier (AIS) and recreational chef, she picked up the essentials of Italian cooking over the course of eight years in Rome and her frequent travels throughout Italy. A believer in culinary sorcery, Annie understands of the healing powers of everything from chicken soup to a flourless chocolate aphrodisiac. A freelance food, wine, and travel writer, she is a contributor to Eurocheapo.com, Berlitz, Time Out, Insight Guides, DK Eye Witness Guides, as well as Where Rome, Draft, and YRB magazines. Now in Brooklyn, she serves as Wine Director and Senior Editor for Haute Life Press, and runs "DiVino", a wine consulting business. See Annie's blog:

Andrea Smith "The Hiker"	Andrea Smith lives with her husband Marino in Milan. Born and raised in Canada, she's an avid hiker. Here, she's pictured with Marino at the Lunghin Pass in Engadina.

Julianne VanWagenen "Wonderland"	Julianne is a 24-year-old United Statesian best known for her 1991 rendition of a Bon-Bon in the Lansing, Michigan community theater performance of "The Nutcracker." She has since moved on to greater, if less celebrated roles in life. She graduated from DePaul University in Chicago and moved to Rome in 2006 to enroll at L'Universita' Roma Tre. She studies, teaches, dances, waitresses, translates, and illegally plants trees at night. She's an advocate of the elegant written word, positive romanticism, quests, tutus, a multiverse, and eating bottom feeders at home rather than sushi out.

Ingrid Williams "The Casual Traveler"	Ingrid Williams is a freelance writer living with her husband on the Ligurian coast. She graduated from NYU with degrees in journalism and politics, and now writes about travel for U.S. publications including The New York Times and Budget Travel. When she's not traveling, you can find her baking Swedish pastries, practicing Anusara yoga, reading fashion magazines and planning her next trip. See Ingrid's site

Christopher P. Winner Editor and Publisher	Christopher P. Winner was born in Paris, France. He founded The American in 2004. He wrote cover stories for USA Today and was later named European correspondent. He has published in The New York Times, Newsweek and The Christian Science Monitor, among others. An American citizen, Winner has been based in Europe for most of his career. He writes the column Area 51 He's a lifelong Neil Young and New York Yankees fan.

David Winner Fiction Editor	David Winner won The Ledge magazine's 2003 Fiction Contest as well as being nominated for two Pushcarts and an AWP Intro Award. His work has appeared in Fiction, Confrontation, Phantasmagoria, Berkeley Fiction Review, Cortland Review, The Village Voice, Dream Catcher and several other publications in the United States and the UK. A short film based on his story was shown at Cannes in 2007, and his fiction is represented by Level Five Media in New York.

Marcia Yarrow Film Critic	A military brat, Marcia Yarrow was born in Hamburg, Germany. She grew up in Germany, Spain, and Provo, Utah. She attended Michigan State University, graduating with honors in French studies in 1990. She attended the National Film School of France, La Femis. She also studied film at USC. She lives in London with her Siamese cat Miou-Miou and her Sioux Indian boyfriend Jasper. She's working on a book on modern European film and second one called, "How to See Movies."

Germano Zaini "Da Germano"	Germano Zaini was born and lives in Rome. He has a degree in biology and works for a pharmaceutical company. He loves traditional Italian and international cooking, mixing flavors to create his own brand of "fusion" cuisine. In his spare time, cooks for his American wife and friends.