Milwaukee-area ex-pat and published author Lindsay Marie Morris is coming home next month to introduce her two novels to her hometown.
Morris was born in Milwaukee, raised in Racine and graduated from Marquette University before relocating first to Brooklyn and then to the opposite coast, landing in Los Angeles.
Morris’ two novels – “Beneath the Sicilian Stars” and “The Last Letter from Sicily” – were published this year by Storm Publishing.
“Both works are inspired by true stories, weaving together oral histories, travel experiences, and in-depth research,” she says. “I spent a month in Italy, touring World War II-era bunkers in Sardinia, walking the streets of my Sicilian ancestors in Porticello, and visiting Catania's Museum of Allied Landings to immerse myself in the history.
“In the U.S., I hunkered down in museum archives, interviewed locals, and visited what remains of ‘Bella Vista,’ a Montana internment camp, where more than 1,000 Italian men spent wartime years behind barbed wire.”
“The Last Letter,” Morris says, was inspired by her grandparents’ immigration journey and, thus, is set in part in Milwaukee.
Meanwhile, “Beneath the Sicilian Stars” is set among the internment, restrictions and forced evacuations of Italian Americans during World War II.
“While my nuclear family followed me to California, my mother's family remains rooted in Southeastern Wisconsin and tied to our Sicilian heritage,” Morris says. “My grandfather shopped at Glorioso's and Groppi's, bottled water from the Pryor Avenue Iron Well, grew baseball-bat-sized cucuzzi in his backyard, and made wine in his basement.
“Meanwhile, my grandmother cooked while singing along to her favorite song requests from The Italian Hour's Joe Mazzocca. It was not until long after they'd both passed that I found myself writing their story in a creative writing class. I now teach how to mine family roots for historical fiction to library and organization audiences and provide coaching on the process.”
You can meet Morris at these upcoming Milwaukee-area events...
- Nov. 1 – Barnes & Noble, Mayfair Mall: Book signing, 1–4 p.m.
- Nov. 2 – Lion’s Tooth: Book signing, discussion and possible Sicilian wine tasting with Nate Norfolk, 2 p.m.
- Nov. 6 – The Well Red Damsel: Italian dinner and discussion of The Last Letter from Sicily, 6 p.m.
- Nov. 8 – Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books, Carroll University, Waukesha: Panel on AI's effects on publishing, 10:15–11:15 a.m.
For more on Lindsay Marie Morris and for links to order the books, visit her website.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press. A fifth collects Urban Spelunking articles about breweries and maltsters.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has been heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
