About Joel
I am a non-fiction author living in North Carolina.
I HAVE HAD THREE BOOKS PUBLISHED.
My first book, Grandfather’s Rock, published by Houghton Mifflin, was a picture book retelling of an Italian folktale passed down from my great-grandmother (1993). This multi-generational story was translated into Taiwanese Mandarin and republished in Taiwan (1994). In addition, Kumon Institute of Education (Japan) uses the text for teaching Chinese Mandarin in Malaysia.
My second book was Lewis Hayden and the War Against Slavery, (Linnet Books, 1999). Kirkus Reviews commented, “this brilliant combination of clear thinking, crisp writing and carefully mapped research presents a picture of a man who was more doer than dreamer. . . . ” (Jan 1, 1999). The New York Public Library honored this book as one of its “Books for the Teen Age” for the year 2000. Still the only full-length biography of Lewis (and his wife Harriet), this work has, since 2019, been credited as a source in at least five scholarly books portraying various segments of the anti-slavery struggle. I am currently updating and revising this book for republication. Click here for more information on this effort.
My third book, a young-adult biography entitled Ansel Adams, American Artist with a Camera, was a part of Enslow Publishers’ “People to Know” series (2002). The book tracks Adams’s growth as a photographic artist and his relationship with the Sierra Club as well as other artists, including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, and Georgia O’Keefe.
Currently I am working on Searching for Pasquale, A Journey Through Southern Italy, West Virginia, and a Small-town Homicide. After six years of research, I tell the story of Pasquale Bilotta, an Italian immigrant to the United States who, in 1931, was shot and killed in Clarksburg, West Virginia. I also describe the Italian immigrant experience including crossing the Atlantic and discrimination against Italians in the 1920s and early 1930s. For more information, click here.
IN MY TRAVEL outside the United States, I have concentrated on Catalonia, Spain and on Calabria, Italy. Catalonia includes Barcelona and the surrounding area where the Pyrenees Mountains, the Mediterranean Sea, France, and Spain unite. Eight of my ten trips to Spain have included significant stops in Catalonia. Calabria, the southern region at the tip of the Italian boot, is the land of my grandfather’s birth. Seven of my nine trips to Italy, have included significant stays in Calabria, whose history includes Greeks, Romans, Byzantine missionaries, Normans, and Spaniards from Catalonia. All my trips to Spain and Italy have been independently arranged, allowing me to experience the ups and downs that arise while navigating schedules of museums, buses, and trains, as well as directions given in languages other than in English and new friendships that miraculously appear.
MEMBERSHIPS
I am a member of the following organizations with an Italian-American focus:
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- Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America (OSDIA)
- National Italian American Foundation (NIAF)
- Italian American Studies Association (IASA)
- Charlotte Chapter of the Italian Heritage Society (IHS)
EDUCATION
My education includes a BA from the University of Minnesota, Summa cum Laude in Political Science, with emphases in English, History, and Economics. I have an MBA from the University of Kentucky, and have enjoyed many community education courses in Spanish and Italian.
EMPLOYMENT
I am retired after a diverse career focused on fundraising (as part of institutions and as a consultant) and, in my later years, property management, including commercial facilities and residential communities.
HOBBIES
I like to swim and ride a bicycle. I have gone for a swim in seven seas: the Balearic, Baltic, Black, Caribbean, Ionian, Tyrrhenian, and Gulf of Mexico, plus the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. I have bicycled in seven nations and one “Overseas Territory”: Canada, Denmark, England, France, Italy (3 regions), Spain (2 regions), United States (13 states), and the Cayman Islands. My favorite bicycle trip was a two-day, 150-mile ride (with support from my wife) from my then-home in Durham, NC to the Carolina coast.
