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

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)

• 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.”

• 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).