Louise DeSalvo

Louise A. DeSalvo (September 27, 1942 – October 31, 2018) was an American writer, editor, professor, and lecturer who lived in New Jersey. Much of her work focused on Italian American culture, though she was also a renowned Virginia Woolf scholar.

Life Born in Jersey City, New Jersey as Louise Anita Sciacchetano, DeSalvo lived in Hoboken, before moving north to Ridgefield, New Jersey, where she graduated from Ridgefield Memorial High School in 1959.

She earned her undergraduate degree from Douglass Residential College at Rutgers University and earned graduate degrees in English at New York University.

Work DeSalvo taught memoir writing as a part of Hunter College's MFA Program in Creative Writing, published over 17 books, and was a Virginia Woolf scholar. She edited editions of Woolf's first novel Melymbrosia, as well as The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf, which documents the controversial lesbian affair between these two novelists. In addition, she wrote two books on Woolf, Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Her Life and Work and Virginia Woolf's First Voyage: A Novel in the Making.

DeSalvo's publications also include the memoir, Vertigo, which received the Gay Talese award and was also a finalist for Italy's Primo Acerbi prize for literature. Vertigo holds as one of the most widely taught Italian American books and has been said to influence almost every Italian American memoir written since. DeSalvo's memoir, Crazy in the Kitchen: Food, Feuds, and Forgiveness in an Italian American Family, was also named a Booksense Book of the Year for 2004. One of DeSalvo's most popular books to date is the writer's guide Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives.

Biblio Major works Reprinted by Feminist Press and translated into Italian by Nutrimenti. The Douglass Society Medal for Distinguished Achievement Jenny Hunter Endowed Scholar for Creative Writing and Literature at Hunter College Gay Talese Award, Vertigo The President's Award from Hunter College