About
I have had fiction, poetry, articles, interviews and guest columns in 67 publications including Yankee, Poetry International, Southern Poetry Review, Potomac Review, Philadelphia Daily News, Miami Jerald, New York Times and Washington Post. I won Honorable Mention in the PEN American Awards in short fiction in 1979 and First Prize in the Barbwire Theatre Award for Poetry in 1978. I was director of the Florida State University Poet Series, appointed Master Poet by the Florida Arts Council and assistant director of the FSU CPE. My previous books are Walking on Water, Poetry, 1986, In the Arms of Strangers, 2003, Five Days to Eternity, 2004, The Judas Scroll, Poetry, 2004, Of Flesh & Stone, 2009, The Ghost, 2013, The Death of Ssherlock Holmes & Other Stories, 2014 and The Easter Lamb, 2015, I am a member of the Authors Guild and the Academy of American Poets.
Featured Work
The Easter Lamb
It is set in nineteen-thirties Philadelphia, where an immigrant Italian family living next door to an Irish family strive to uphold their family tradition of buying a lamb before Easter, in order to fatten it to be slaughtered for Easter dinner. Kept in the family’s cellar until then, the endearing creature proves a magnet to other city children who flock to see it, and the youngest Vianello boy begs to save the life of their new “pet”, now dubbed “Delilah”. This gives rise to a convoluted plot involving the secret purchase of a substitute lamb carcass and the smuggling of the live lamb out of the house, only to be discovered .
It is set in nineteen-thirties Philadelphia, where an immigrant Italian family living next door to an Irish family strive to uphold their family tradition of buying a lamb before Easter, in order to fatten it to be slaughtered for Easter dinner. Kept in the family’s cellar until then, the endearing creature proves a magnet to other city children who flock to see it, and the youngest Vianello boy begs to save the life of their new “pet”, now dubbed “Delilah”. This gives rise to a convoluted plot involving the secret purchase of a substitute lamb carcass and the smuggling of the live lamb out of the house, only to be discovered .
Other Works
Awards and Recognition
- PEN American award for short Fiction, Honorable Mention
