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Christopher Castellani: Leading Men
9 August at 19:00
Wednesday, August 9th 2023, 7 pm
Free admission – RSVP
Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Montréal
1200 Av. du Dr Penfield
Rescheduled from last month, Christopher Castellani: Leading Men is an onstage interview with award-winning Italian-American author Christopher Castellani. Castellani is the author of five books, most of which centre on the Italian and/or queer experience. His most recent novel, Leading Men, tells the story of Frank Merlo, the somewhat forgotten working-class Italian-American who was transformational in the life and work of Tennessee Williams. Currently being adapted into a film by Matthew López (The Inheritance) and Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name), the book is a breathtaking work of historical fiction, blending together the real and imagined lives of the two men as they navigate the literary and film circles of 1950s Italy.
For the interview, Castellani will be joined onstage by author Christopher DiRaddo. The two will discuss Castellani’s work, as well as the generational tension that exists between immigrant and first-generation Italians and where it intersects with queer identity.
Christopher Castellani has published five books, most of which center on the Italian, Italian-American, and/or queer experience. His first novel, A Kiss from Maddalena (Algonquin, 2003) won the Massachusetts Book Award in 2004; its follow-up, The Saint of Lost Things (Algonquin, 2005), was a BookSense (IndieBound) Notable Book; the final novel in the trilogy, All This Talk of Love (Algonquin, 2013), was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Literary Award. His most recent novel is Leading Men, for which he received Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, MacDowell, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
A co-presentation between the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Montreal, the Queer Studies in Quebec Research Group (ÉRÉQQ), Blue Metropolis and Violet Hour.
Admission is free. Click here to reserve your ticket.
Books will be for sale onsite, provided by Librairie Paragraphe Books.