Chiara Barzini

Chiara Barzini
Born1979 (1979) (age 45)
Rome, Italy
Education
Occupation
  • writer
Children2

Chiara Barzini (born 1979) is an Italian writer known for her semi-autobiographical novel Things that Happened Before the Earthquake set in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles in the early 1990s.[1][2]

Early life and education

Chiara Barzini was born in 1979 in Rome, Italy, the oldest child of film director Andrea Barzini and Stephania Barzini. [1][2] Her grandfather was the Italian journalist and politician Luigi Barzini Jr. and her great grandfather was the Italian war correspondent, journalist, and pro-Fascist politician Luigi Barzini Sr.[2] When Barzini was 15 in 1994, she moved to the United States with her parents and younger brother, where the family lived in Van Nuys and she attended Van Nuys High School.[2] When her parents moved back to Italy in 1999, Barzini stayed in California and attended the University of California, Santa Cruz. Later she moved to Brooklyn, worked in Greenwich Village as a waitress, and studied creative writing at the City College of New York.[2]

Career

Barzini has worked as a writer on films, including collaborating with Ginevra Elkann on both If Only (Magari) and I Told You So (Te l’avevo detto). She has written short stories and magazine articles, and in 2017 published her first novel, Things that Happened Before the Earthquake, a coming of age roman a clef narrative set in the San Fernando Valley in the early 1990s.[2][1][3][4] The novel, which received positive reviews from newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times[5] and Vogue,[3] is currently being adapted as a film by Robert Zemeckis.[6] She has been published in a wide variety of magazines including Noon, Bomb Magazine, the New Review of Literature, the Village Voice, Rolling Stone Italy, Italian Vanity Fair, and Marie Claire.[7]

Awards

In 2019 Barzini won the San Fernando Valley Award for Fiction from the Friends of the Library at California State University, Northridge.[8][9]

Personal life

Barzini's partner is Luca Infascelli.[2] She has two children, Sebastiano and Anita.[1] Barzini's aunt is the Italian actress and model Benedetta Barzini.[10][11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d DiMercurio, Catherine, ed. (2019). Contemporary Authors (Vol. 419). Farmington Hills: Cengage Gale.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Ermelino, Louisa (June 5, 2017). "Under the California sun: in her debut novel, Things that Happened Before the Earthquake, Chiara Barzini tells a bittersweet story of transformation and discovery". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  3. ^ a b Mechling, Lauren (August 15, 2017). "A Feverish, Unflinching Look at Coming-of-Age in 1990s Los Angeles". Vogue. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  4. ^ Shia, Jonathan (August 28, 2017). "Chiara Barzini on Growing up Italian in Nineties Los Angeles". The Last Magazine. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  5. ^ Maslin, Janet (May 26, 2017). "Escape Into Books". New York Times. Retrieved November 4, 2024.
  6. ^ Montebello, Valeria (May 15, 2020). "Chiara Barzini: A Wild Life". Klat Magazine. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  7. ^ "Alumni Highlights". UC Santa Cruz Creative Writing. University of California, Santa Cruz. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  8. ^ "San Fernando Valley Award: Fiction | Oviatt Library". library.csun.edu. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  9. ^ "Chiara Barzini Named Recipient of 2019 San Fernando Valley Award for Fiction". CSUN Today. California State University, Northridge. August 1, 2019. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  10. ^ Barzini, Chiara (October 16, 2018). "New York's unreciprocated love for Benedetta Barzini". Document Journal. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  11. ^ Barzini, Chiara (June 2015). "Valley Girl". Vogue. Retrieved November 4, 2024.