Maria Laurino

Maria Laurino is the author of Were You Always an Italian?, a national best-selling memoir about ethnic identity, as well as the forthcoming memoir Old World Daughter, New World Mother: An Education in Love and Freedom (W.W. Norton, 2009). A former chief speechwriter to NYC Mayor David Dinkins and a staff writer for the Village Voice, Laurino's work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, the Nation, Salon.com, and numerous publications.  Her essays have been widely anthologized, including in the Norton Reader.