Christopher Castellani

Christopher Castellani, the son of Italian immigrants, was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and graduated from Salesianum School in 1990. He holds a B.A. in English literature from Swarthmore College, an M.A. in English literature from Tufts University, and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Boston University. He resides in Boston, Massachusetts.{{Cite web|url= https://christophercastellani.com/about-christopher-castellani.html | title=About Christopher | last=Castellani|first=Christopher|date=|website=christophercastellani.com|publisher=|access-date=May 24, 2019}} He has been married to Michael Borum since May 21, 2004.{{cite news |access-date = June 3, 2019 | date = May 17, 2014 | title = Celebrating 10 Years of Gay Marriage | first = Rachel | last = Raczka | url = https://www.boston.com/culture/relationships/2014/05/17/celebrating-10-years-of-gay-marriage | publisher = Boston.com }}

Castellani is the author of four novels. His first book, A Kiss from Maddalena, won the 2004 Massachusetts Book Award. That novel and his next two, The Saint of Lost Things and All This Talk of Love, are devoted to the same Italian-American family and constitute, in one reviewer's phrase, "something of an opera buffa of the immigrant experience".{{cite news |work=The New York Times | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/books/review/all-this-talk-of-love-by-christopher-castellani.html | access-date = May 24, 2019 | date= April 5, 2013 | title = La Famiglia | first = Maria| last = Russo }} He is also the author of The Art of Perspective: Who Tells the Story, an installment in the writing craft series from Graywolf Press.{{Cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/christopher-castellani/the-art-of-perspective/|title=THE ART OF PERSPECTIVE by Christopher Castellani {{!}} Kirkus Reviews|website=Kirkus Reviews|language=en-us|access-date=May 20, 2016}} His short fiction and essays have been included in several anthologies.

Castellani's most recent book, Leading Men, is a fictionalized telling of the relationship between Tennessee Williams and Frank Merlo.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/12/books/review-leading-men-christopher-castellani-tennessee-williams.html|title='Leading Men,' a Novel About Tennessee Williams and His Lover, Casts a Spell From the Start|last=Garner|first=Dwight|date=February 12, 2019|work=The New York Times|access-date=May 14, 2019| language=en-US|quote=Williams and Merlo's years together are the subject of Christopher Castellani's blazing new novel, “Leading Men.” Writing fiction is to no small degree a confidence game, and “Leading Men” casts a spell right from the start. }} New York Times book critic Dwight Garner said the novel "casts a spell right from the start" and "to hold it in your hands is like holding...a front-row opera ticket." Also in the Times, novelist David Leavitt called it "intricately designed as a Lego kit" and said "engineering may be the aspect of novel writing that deserves the most praise and gets the least, and Castellani is a first-rate engineer."{{cite news | work =The New York Times | access-date = May 24, 2019 | date= February 20, 2019 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/books/review/leading-men-christopher-castellani.html | title = A Novelist Dares to Imagine Tennessee Williams in Love and at Work | first = Favid | last = Leavitt}} The novel is divided into two narratives and includes the full text of an invented, and intentionally bad, Tennessee Williams play.{{cite news | access-date = May 24, 2019 | url = https://www.delawareonline.com/story/life/2019/02/21/delaware-writer-christopher-castellani-comes-home-read-new-book

| title = 'Saint of Lost Things' author focuses on Tennessee Williams and his lover in new book | work = Delaware Online | first = Betsy | last = Price |date= February 21, 2019}} Leading Men is currently being adapted into a feature film by Searchlight Pictures with a screenplay by playwright Matthew Lopez (writer).{{cite web | url=https://variety.com/2020/film/news/matthew-lopez-the-inheritance-searchlight-pictures-tennessee-williams-luca-guadagnino-peter-spears-1234770160/ | title='The Inheritance' Playwright Matthew López to Pen Tennessee Williams Drama for Searchlight, Produced by Luca Guadagnino and Peter Spears (EXCLUSIVE) | date=November 23, 2020 }} The film is being produced by Peter Spears and directed by Luca Guadagnino.

Castellani taught English literature at Tufts University (1997–2000) and creative writing as a visiting professor at Swarthmore College (2007). In 2004 and 2005, Castellani was a Fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference at Middlebury College, and has served on the Bread Loaf faculty as well as the faculty of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. He is the former artistic director of the creative writing non-profit GrubStreet,{{Cite web|url=https://grubstreet.org/about/who-we-are/staff/|title=Staff {{!}} GrubStreet|website=grubstreet.org|language=en|access-date=April 30, 2019}} and serves on the faculty of the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers.{{cite news|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2013/02/05/book-review-all-this-talk-love-christopher-castellani/DnGYWg508BcQAg51Hzi6oK/story.html|title=Book review: 'All This Talk of Love' by Christopher Castellani|last=Koven|first=Suzanne|date=February 5, 2013|newspaper=The Boston Globe|accessdate=March 7, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140307225916/http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2013/02/05/book-review-all-this-talk-love-christopher-castellani/DnGYWg508BcQAg51Hzi6oK/story.html|archive-date=March 7, 2014|url-status=dead}} From 2022 to 2024, Castellani was the Fannie Hurst Writer in Residence at Brandeis University.{{Cite web |title=Writer in Residence Christopher Castellani awarded National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship |url=https://www.brandeis.edu/stories/2024/january/of-note/castellani-nea.html |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=www.brandeis.edu |language=en}}

As a result of the lawsuits between writers Sonya Larson and Dawn Dorland described in a 2021 New York Times article Who Is the Bad Art Friend, some of Castellani's private emails were made public, including one where Castellani wrote of Dorland, "my mission in life is going to be to exact revenge on this pestilence of a person." GrubStreet director Eve Bridburg publicly expressed concern that Castellani's comments had "caused distrust and concern in our community."{{Cite web |title=Author at the center of 'Bad Art Friend' controversy leaves GrubStreet following review |url=https://www.wbur.org/news/2021/10/29/sonya-larson-bad-art-friend-leaves-grubstreet |access-date=2022-08-23 |website=www.wbur.org |date=October 29, 2021 |language=en}} Castellani published an apology to the GrubStreet community, expressing regret for his words and saying, "I wrote some of those unprofessional emails as an admittedly hyperbolic, deliberatively provocative, and highly performative way of supporting my friend and fellow writer."{{Cite web|title=Message from Christopher Castellani|url=https://grubstreet.org/blog/message-from-christopher-castellani/|access-date=2021-11-02|website=grubstreet.org|date=October 30, 2021 |quote=What matters is that my comments have evoked a range of negative feelings in members of the GrubStreet community and caused some to question my commitment to our values of mutual respect. Reading them has likely also caused Dawn Dorland personal hurt, which I sincerely regret.|language=en}}

• Massachusetts Book Award, 2004{{Cite web|url=https://www.massbook.org/previous-winners |title=Previous Winners|website=Massachusetts Center for the Book |access-date = May 24, 2019 }}
• Guggenheim Fellowship, 2014{{Cite web|url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/christopher-castellani/| website =John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation | title = Christopher Castellani |access-date=May 24, 2019}}
• Poets & Writers: Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, 2015{{Cite web|url=http://www.pw.org/about-us/writers_writers_award_and_editors_award|title=Writers for Writers Award, Editor's Award | website= Poets and Writers|date=February 12, 2008 | access-date=May 24, 2019}}
• Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship, 2016{{Cite web|url=http://www.massculturalcouncil.org/gallery/artistDetail.asp?App=20163375|title=Mass Cultural Council {{!}} Gallery@MCC {{!}} Artist Detail |website=Massachusetts Cultural Council |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107180210/https://massculturalcouncil.org/gallery/artistDetail.asp?App=20163375|archive-date=January 7, 2017|url-status=|access-date=May 20, 2016}}
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 2024{{Cite web |title=Christopher Castellani |url=https://www.arts.gov/impact/literary-arts/creative-writing-fellows/christopher-castellani |access-date=2024-09-08 |website=www.arts.gov |language=en}}

• A Kiss from Maddalena, Algonquin Books, 2003
• The Saint of Lost Things, Algonquin Books, 2005
• All This Talk of Love, Algonquin Books, 2013
• Leading Men, Viking Books, 2019

• "The Living," Ploughshares, 2013

• The Art of Perspective: Who Tells the Story, Graywolf Press, 2016

• Now Write! Fiction Writing Exercises from Today's Best Writers and Teachers, Sherry Ellis, ed., Tarcher Books, 2006
• Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer, Bret Anthony Johnston, ed., Random House, 2008
• Mentors, Muses & Monsters, Elizabeth Benedict, ed., Excelsior Editions, 2012

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• {{Official website|http://www.christophercastellani.com/ }}
• {{cite interview | interviewer = John Beauregard |url = http://www.tingemagazine.org/an-interview-with-christopher-castellani/| work = Tinge Magazine | publisher= Temple University |title= An Interview with Christopher Castellani| date= Spring 2014}}

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Category:Living people

Category:1972 births

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:Writers from Wilmington, Delaware

Category:Novelists from Massachusetts

Category:Swarthmore College alumni

Category:Warren Wilson College faculty

Category:American male novelists

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:Boston University College of Arts and Sciences alumni

Category:Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences alumni

Category:Salesianum School alumni