Discipline: Literature

Helen Barolini

Discipline: Literature
Region: Hastings-on-Hudson, NY
MacDowell Fellowships: 1974
Helen Barolini is a writer, editor, and translator most widely known for her work surrounding her experience as a second-generation Italian American. Barolini received degrees from Syracuse University, the University of Florence, and Columbia University. After completing her studies, Barolini completed her first book with the assistance of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her first novel, Umbertina, went on to be awarded the Americans of Italian Heritage Award for Literature in 1984, and the Premio Acerbi, an Italian literary prize, in 2008. Barolini’s other widely known work, The Dream Book: An Anthology of Writings by Italian American Women (1985), went on to receive the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, and the Susan Koppelman Award from the American Culture Association. Barolini’s essays have been featured in a variety of publications, including The New Yorker, Ms., the Yale Review, The Paris Review, Kenyon Review, and Prairie Schooner. She has been the recipient of numerous awards from organizations such as the 2003 Woman of the Year Award in Literature from the Italian Welfare League, New York, the 2000 MELUS Award for Distinguished Contribution to Ethnic Studies, and the 1970 Marina-Velca Essay Prize in Italy.

Studios

Garland

Helen Barolini worked in the Garland studio.

Marian MacDowell and friends originally named this studio in memory of Anna Baetz, the nurse who helped care for Edward MacDowell in the waning years of his life. With generous support from the Garland family, the studio was renovated in 2013 and renamed the Peter and Mary Garland Studio. The inward opening, diamond-pane windows were replaced…

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