John Domini

"The essays and criticism in The Sea-God’s Herb are “often charming and ultimately important,” and together amount to “a thing of beauty.”"

— J.C. Hallman, author of B & Me, in Brooklyn Rail.

"MOVIEOLA! is a glory -- smart, cutting and funny. John Domini... gets to that scary place where we all dwell, our delusional but self-sustaining personal movies flickering inside our skulls, all of us bit players praying for a major arc."

— Sam Lipsyte, author of The Fun Parts.

Below, see information for upcoming readings, talks, and more. Times given are local to the venue.

John's latest book is a memoir, The Archeology of a Good Ragù, with Guernica World Editions. The story concerns his recovery from midlife failures by way of Naples, Italy, his father's hometown. It's an unblinking close-up, and an early rave appeared in Brooklyn Rail.

In 2019 appeared The Color Inside a Melon, the closer of John's Naples trilogy, on Dzanc Books. Blurbs included Salman Rushdie, and praise came in Washington Post, The Millions, and elsewhere.

Other coverage included review-interviews in Fiction Writers Review and Writeliving, and excerpts in Conjunctions, Del Sol Review, and elsewhere. For more, see the Books page.

John has a page on Wikipedia.

John's set of stories MOVIEOLA!, appeared in Italian on Jona Editore early in 2019. See a review at Librofilia.

Vanity Fair praised MOVIEOLA! as "thoroughly entertaining" in June 2016. Chicago Tribune and BBC Culture put the book on their must-read lists. The Millions hailed it as "a new shriek for a new century."

Dzanc also published John's selected essays and criticism, The Sea-God's Herb.

John spent July and August 2012 in the Val di Comino, southeast of Rome, as artist in residence with the Festival delle Storie. There's a video in Italian with a bit of his work.

Dzanc has reissued John's first four books in electronic versions: two story collections and two novels. Bedlam, John's first book, includes a new author's preface and two early stories never before collected.

In '09, Terremoto Napoletano, the Italian translation of John's Earthquake I.D., was the runner-up for Italy's Domenico Rea prize. The translator was Stefano Manferlotti and the press Tullio Pironti Editore.

Recent grants include a Major Artist Award from the Iowa Arts Council.

All event times are local to the event.

Contact John Domini

John welcomes word from readers and thinkers: dominijohn51 at gmail dot com.

In 2021 appeared John's 10th book, a memoir, The Archeology of a Good Ragù. Praise came in Brooklyn Rail and elsewhere. Earlier he published four novels, the most recent The Color Inside a Melon, 2019, with blurbs from Salman Rushdie and others. The novel was listed among the year's best. Set in Naples, Italy, it completes a loose trilogy that began with Earthquake I.D. He also has three books of stories, the latest MOVIEOLA! The Millions called this "a new shriek for a new century."

His books have appeared in Italian, and he's done translation himself. He's appeared in anthologies, in all genres, and in Paris Review, New York Times, and other places. Grants include an NEA Fellowship and an Iowa Major Artist Award.

He's taught at Harvard, Northwestern, and elsewhere, and lives in Des Moines with the science fiction writer Lettie Prell.

Photo credit: Camille Renee.