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John Domini has won a Major Artist grant from the Iowa Arts Council. The award was for $8500, the largest amount given in this six-month cycle. In April 2009, John Domini's novel Earthquake I.D. was published in Italian, under title Terremoto Napoletano. This is his first book to be translated. The translator is Stefano Manferlotti, and the press Tullio Pironti Editore, the first Italian house to publish Don DeLillo. In Il Mattino, the Naples paper, Fabrizio Coscia calls the novel: "a voyage of initiation... that seduces and wounds... in a city unmasked by Domini's style, refined, visonary, and alert to paradox." In Roma, Marco Catizone writes that Terremoto Napoletano: "captures all the subversive possibilities of language in a kaleidoscope of vibrant sound and image." There have been other interviews and articles as well. On YouTube you'll find a video from the Italian presentation for Domini's novel, held in Naples. Thanks to Jason Pettus for his sumptuous review of A Tomb on the Periphery for the Chicago Center for Literature & Photography. Pettus gave the novel 9.5 stars out of 10, and said it compared favorably to the work of Michael Chabon and Cormac McCarthy, "stunning in its quality... a fabled rare book." Thanks to Emanuele Pettener for his interview with John in the Winter Rain Taxi. John covers subjects ranging from American publishing to his Italian heritage. Thanks to Dan Wickett and his Emerging Writers Network for selecting A Tomb on the Periphery as on of their favorites for 2008. Emerging Writers Network awarded the book four and half stars: "extremely well-developed characters... a flair not frequently seen..." Thanks to Michael Madison for his review/interview in the October, '08, Bookslut.com. Madison said that A Tomb on the Periphery "takes the trappings of noir then transcends the genre... a lush and generous work." Thanks to Linda Lappin for her review of A Tomb on the Periphery in GentlyReadLiterature.com. Lappin says the novel is "a flash of authentic Naples.... Extraordinary energy and plasticity... startles, stabs, tickles and at times dazzles." Thanks to Jennifer Prado for her interview -- plus -- on the Emerge blog. Scroll down for the John Domini material. Prado calls Tomb on the Periphery "authentic in every aspect...," its style a "balance of free-wheeling... associations and humor..." recalling "James Joyce and Woody Allen." Thanks to Dennis Barone for his penetrating review of A Tomb on the Periphery in Italian Americana Winter 2009. "Domini's writing might be called projectile-prose. Exhibiting a Jamesian complexity, ...he demonstrates a lively, generous mind in action through swift moving, sonorous language." Thanks to Ben Tanzer and This Blog Will Change Will Change Your Life for his lively podcast interview in April 2009. Thanks to Lew Diuguid and Johns Hopkins Magazine for selecting A Tomb on the Periphery for their "Shelf Life" column, November '08. "As the sauce thickens... all of the characters take on texture...." Thanks to Jeff VanderMeer for the savvy article and penetrating interview, on Amazon's Omnivoracious page. Thanks to Matt Miller and Des Moines Cityview for featuring A Tomb on the Periphery in their Fall Books Guide. "Fabrizzio is caught between his morals and his impulses... A fast-paced crime novel with a little romance." Thanks to the Midwest Book Review for the review this June. "From first to last, A Tomb on the Periphery is a must." Thanks also to Adele Ver Steeg, in the July/August issue of The Iowan, and to Natalie Jacobsen McCracken for her fine work in Bostonia. A Tomb on the Periphery, returns to the troubled Naples of last year's Earthquake I.D., but spins an entirely new tale: part crime story, part ghost story, part coming of age, part redemption song, and more, all having to do with Italy's underground market in ancient jewelry. Thanks to Jason Pettus and the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography for a wonderful review of Earthquake I.D., online at January 9, 2009. Pettus gave the novel 9.5 stars out of 10: "I'm in the presence of greatness... one of the best-written books of our times." Thanks to Fred Gardpahe for his thoughtful review of Earthquake I.D. in Fra Noi. "A well focused plot tightly wound... Enough mystery to keep the pages turning while telling a contemporary story that can touch us all." Thanks to Dan Wickett and the Emerging Writers Network for the four-star review of Earthquake I.D.. A sampling of other reviews are on the Earthquake I.D. page, and under "Pertinent Links." John Domini's translation of Tullio Pironti's memoir, Books & Rough Business, is now in bookstores everywhere, on Red Hen Press. In Italy, the memoir received over 100 reviews, and plans are in place for a movie adaptation. In 2010, Domini will bring out his first collection of non-fiction. The Sea-God's Herb, a selection of essays and reviews, has been accepted by Red Hen Press. "A tour de force, a crime novel and at the same time a moving story, A Tomb on the Periphery is wonderful." - Jay Parini "John Domini is a master of suspense and psychological complexity. A Tomb on the Periphery is edgy, richly peopled, and thoroughly absorbing." - Margot Livesey "Earthquake I.D. is a wonderful novel of an old-fashioned sort... a rich feast." - Richard Ford, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. "John Domini is a writer of the world."
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