Writing Italy, Living Italy: Author Cheryl A. Ossola on Family History, Fiction & Making a Life Abroad

​What happens when the Italy of your family history becomes the place you call home?

​Join Speak! Language Center for a conversation with author Cheryl A. Ossola, a Virginia native and longtime resident of Italy, celebrating the release of her new historical novel, How Long a Shadow.

​Set in 1903, the novel draws on Ossola's own Italian family history, following immigrants from Viggiù in northern Italy to the granite industry of Barre, Vermont. We'll hear a short reading and talk with Cheryl about the family stories and historical research behind the novel, Italian immigration, and the challenge of turning ancestral history into fiction.

​But we'll also go beyond the book to explore Cheryl's own journey in the opposite direction: from Virginia to Italy. What inspired her to make the move? What role did language and her Italian roots play? What does it take to create a life in another country, and how has eight years of living in Italy changed her understanding of Italy, America, and home?

​The evening will conclude with audience conversation and Q&A.