Joanna Clapps Herman

Joanna Clapps Herman (born in 1944 in Waterbury, Connecticut) is an Italian American, writer, editor and professor of creative writing who lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She teaches at City College of New York, The Center for Worker Education, is on the Master's of Fine Arts faculty in creative writing at Manhattanville College, and teaches writing and memoir workshops. She is also on the Italian Americana Advisory Board. Her writings on Italian American identity and culture have added to the dialogue of what it means to be an Italian American and being Italian in America. She is a member of the Malìa, a collective of Italian American women. She is currently writing After the Manner of Women (forthcoming, Fordham University Press, 2014).

Italian American Heritage and Family History
Herman was born to second-generation Italian American parents. Her grandparents are all from the province of Basilicata, also known as Lucania. These towns are part of the area's ancient history. Her father's family is from Avigliano, where the name Claps is a common one. Her mother's family (Becce), is from Tolve, which it is said Hannibal burned to the ground on his sweep through Italy. In the fields outside Tolve, are the remains of a 4th Century BCE Roman Villa.

The customs of this part of Italy were kept alive during her childhood in America. Herman's maternal grandparents were farmers and cheesemakers The men in her paternal family were blacksmiths in Avigliano and became ironworkers in the U.S. This history is reflected in Herman's writing, where the subject of being a southern Italian woman raised in a Post-World War II New England industrial town, is addressed.

Education, Career and Works
Herman has a Bachelor of Arts in English from SUNY Empire State College and a Master of Arts in American Studies from City College of New York. Herman has written The Anarchist Bastard: Growing Up Italian in America, (2011). She is co-editor of Wild Dreams: The Best of Italian Americana. (2008), which is referenced on Wiki's Italian American entry, and as co-editor of Our Roots Are Deep With Passion: Creative Nonfiction Collects New Essays by Italian-American Writers, (2007).

She has conducted readings and lectures at Lower East Side Tenement Museum, John D. Calandra Institute of Queens College, CUNY, Casa Italiana, University of Connecticut, Generoso Pope Foundation, Westchester Italian Cultural Center, Montescaglioso, Italy.

Interviews with Herman about her book, The Anarchist Bastard can be heard on Wisconsin Public Radio's Here On Earth: Radio Without Borders and on Connecticut's WPKN Radio.

Honors & Awards
Herman's story, "Perfect Hatred," won a Bruno Arcudi Literature Prize, and her story, "Falling," won a Henry Paolucci Award. She has received the Chase Award for Literary Excellence, was the keynote speaker and honoree of The Annual Litchfield Review Writers Conference and awarded her with The Litchfield Review] medal for Literary Excellence. She was named Fab Over Fifty. Herman's work was featured by The Italian American Writers Association (IAWA) at Cornelia Street Cafe.

Book Reviews
Fred Gardaphe, Family Writing Workshop, review of The Anarchist Bastard: Growing Up Italian in America, October 2011.

Ciao America!, review of The Anarchist Bastard: Growing Up Italian in America, June 2011.

Feile-Festa: The Literary Arts Journal of The Mediterranean Celtic Cultural Assocation and Paradiso-Parthas Press, review of The Anarchist Bastard: Growing Up Italian in America, Spring 2011.

Good Reads], community reviews of The Anarchist Bastard: Growing Up Italian in America.

Her books have also been reviewed by San Francisco Book Review and Italian American Digest.