About Joel
I am an author living in North Carolina.
I have had three books published.
My first book, Grandfather’s Rock, published by Houghton Mifflin, is a picture book retelling of an Italian folktale passed down from my great-grandmother (1993, 30 pages). This multi-generational story was translated into Taiwanese Mandarin and republished in Taiwan (1994). In addition, Kumon Institute of Education (Japan) uses my story for teaching Chinese Mandarin in Malaysia.
My second book, Lewis Hayden and the War Against Slavery, is a young-adult biography (Linnet Books/Shoe String Press, 1999, 167 pages). Kirkus Reviews said, “The first full length biography of an escaped slave who became a leader in Boston’s African-American community, 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.
My third book, is a young-adult biography entitled Ansel Adams, American Artist with a Camera, a part of Enslow Publishers’s “People to Know” series (2002, 128 pages). 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 a book entitled Searching for Pasquale, a true crime saga told in memoir style. After six years of research, I am writing the story of Pasquale Bilotta, an Italian immigrant to the United States who, in 1931, was shot and killed in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
Travels
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 Italian-American organizations:
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- Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America (OSDIA)
- National Italian American Foundation (NIAF)
- 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 also have an MBA from the University of Kentucky, plus numerous 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
In addition to travel, and often as part of it, 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 six nations and one “Overseas Territory”: Denmark, England, France, Italy (3 regions), Spain (2 regions), United States (12 states) and the Cayman Islands. My favorite bicycle adventure was a two-day, 150-mile ride (with support from my wife) from my home in Durham, NC to the Carolina coast.
Contact Joel