Elisa M. Speranza

Elisa M. Speranza is the author of the 2022 novel The Italian Prisoner, a work of historical fiction set during World War II in New Orleans. The book was a finalist in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. Elisa serves on the board of the New Orleans Writers Workshop and has been a featured author at the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival, the Louisiana Book Festival, the Islanders Write conference on Martha’s Vineyard, and the Salem (MA) LitFest. She is a co-founder of the Washashores Writers Collective. Ms. Speranza has worked in journalism, local government, politics, and the corporate world. The granddaughter of Irish and Italian immigrants and a Lynn, Massachusetts native, she lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts.

Facebook: @ElisaMarieSperanza 

Instagram: @Elisa_Marie_Speranza 

Threads: @elisa_marie_speranza

Are there particular films that have influenced your writing? 

I used to joke that my book was “The English Patient” meets “Moonstruck,” and there’s some truth to that. The Italian Prisoner is a coming-of-age story as well as a love letter to my Italian-American heritage. It’s set during World War II on the New Orleans home front, so there’s some existential wartime angst, but also beauty, humor, and of course, Italian food.

Is there a genre of music that influences your writing/thinking? Do you listen to music while you write? 

My novel is so full of music that I was compelled to write a playlist for it! (It’s posted on my website here.) The book is set to a swing-era soundtrack, and I listened to a lot of jump blues, swing, jazz, and movie soundtrack music while writing. Band leader, Sicilian-American, and jazz trumpeter New Orlean’s own Louis Prima even makes a cameo appearance in the book.

Favorite non-reading activity?

Living in New Orleans, we have a lot of opportunities to hear live, local music and otherwise participate in local culture. In Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, where I live in the summer, it’s more about kayaking and beaches. And I do watch a lot of baseball.

Have you ever experienced Imposter Syndrome?

Oh, HELL, yeah. My writer friends and I joke about this all the time. My favorite example is when I was put on a historical fiction panel last summer at the Islanders Write conference on Martha’s Vineyard. I was excited to be included—then they told me one of the other speakers was going to be Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks! She couldn’t have been nicer to the rest of us mortals, and we had a great time. Plus, because she was there, it was a sell-out crowd.

Is there a work of art that you love. Why? Have you ever visited it in person?

Many years ago I had an opportunity to see Michelangelo’s “Prisoners” in Florence, Italy. As I was working on my book, that image bubbled up and I pinned a photo of the sculptures to my bulletin board. The whole time I was writing, I felt like I was excavating to get to the core of the story buried within the plot.