• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

The Italian American Podcast

Inspiring Italian Americans to deepen their heritage

  • About
    • Your Hosts
  • Episodes
    • Episode Archive
    • Bonus Segments
      • Conversations on Columbus
      • Updates from Italy
  • Membership
  • Blog
  • Shop
    • A Very Italian American Christmas Eve Party
  • Italian America TV
  • Contact

IAP 06: Adriana Trigiani on Family, The Shoemaker’s Wife, and Recreating the Lives of Our Italian American Ancestors – Part 1 of 2

January 3, 2016 By Italian American Podcast Leave a Comment

Adriana Trigiani Little Italy
Reference: AdrianaTrigiani.com

Please note, since this was published, we have also published part 2 of our interview with Adriana Trigiani.

In this episode of The Italian American Podcast, we speak to New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani, the author of “The Shoemaker’s Wife,” “Lucia, Lucia,” and “All the Stars in the Heavens,” among other critically acclaimed and bestselling books.  Adriana is also a filmmaker, most recently writing and directing “Big Stone Gap,” a film, starring Ashely Judd and Whoopi Goldberg, based on her enormously successful Big Stone Gap Series. In this episode you will hear Trigiani on family, “The Shoemaker’s Wife,” and recreating the lives of our Italian American ancestors.  This is part 1 of a 2 part episode.

BONUS: We also had some fun at the end of this episode in our Italian American stories segment and added in some footage that we didn’t publish for Episode 5 of us making some homemade mozzarella (see video below).

Tweetables:
“The river upon which all the stories flow is the family.” – Adriana Trigiani (tweet this)
“These stories of our ancestors are really important, for the wider world, they matter.” – Adriana Trigiani (tweet this)
“In marriage, you be as much of a force as he is.” – Adriana Trigiani on her grandmother Lucia (tweet this)
“She had a drive that could withstand a plague.” – Adriana Trigiani on her grandmother Lucia (tweet this)[su_spacer]

 Episode Summary:
 Some of the key points discussed in this episode:
  • Trigiani’s family history.
  • Trigiani asking her grandmother to write her own life story.
  • The true story behind her blockbuster bestselling book “The Shoemaker’s Wife.”
  • The strength of her grandmother Lucia.
  • Her sensibility as a writer and a person as to how she enjoys re-creating and re-living the lives of her ancestors.
  • How having a writer in the family telling its business can be frowned upon.
  • The codes and family structure of popular Italian American movies like “The Godfather.”
Resources Mentioned during the Episode:
  • Adriana Trigiani’s website
  • Adriana Trigiani Facebook page
  • Big Stone Gap movie Facebook page
  • Big Stone Gap movie website 

BONUS: Video of Dolores and I making homemade mozzarella (well…maybe watching and tasting).

https://youtu.be/iT_PuqzhbUI

 

Filed Under: Author Interviews, Podcast, Video Posts Tagged With: adriana trigiani, the shoemaker's wife

Previous Post: « IAP 05: The Sounds of an Italian American Kitchen at Christmas Time
Next Post: IAP 07: Adriana Trigiani on Italy, Ego Versus Heart and Why Understanding Your Past is Important – Part 2 of 2 »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Copyright © 2025 · Property of Italian Power Productions, LLC · Powered by