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Grace Andreacchi

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Grace Andreacchi
Born (1954-12-03) December 3, 1954 (age 69)
New York City, U.S.
Occupation
Period1985–present
GenreMetafiction, postmodern theater
Literary movementModernism, post-modernism, surrealism
Website
graceandreacchi.com

Grace Andreacchi (born December 3, 1954) is an American-born author known for her blend of poetic language and modernism with a post-modernist sensibility. Andreacchi is active as a novelist, poet and playwright.

Biography

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Grace Andreacchi was born in New York City and grew up in the Inwood[1] section of Manhattan.[2] She was educated at the Academy of Mount St. Ursula High School,[3][4] and went on to study theatre at the Stella Adler[5] Studio. A brief period on the stage was followed by the study of philosophy,[6] first at Hunter College (New York City), and then at Binghamton University (Binghamton, New York). In her final year she received a fellowship to study at Bedford College, London. Since 1989 Andreacchi has lived in Europe, moving first to Paris,[7] then rural Normandy, and later to Berlin[8] (1994–1998) and London,[9] where she now lives. In 2008 she founded Andromache Books,[10] a writers' cooperative, to publish literary fiction and poetry.

Works

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Her first work was the play Vegetable Medley (1985, Soho Repertory Theater, New York and Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, Massachusetts), an experimental work fusing elements of comedy and melodrama in a highly poeticised language. Her first novel, Give My Heart Ease (1989), received the New American Writing Award and was translated into Slovenian as Pomiri mi srce. Admired by some critics, others found its frank depiction of an abusive sexual relationship disturbing.[11]

Her 1993 novel, Music for Glass Orchestra, garnered much critical acclaim for its wildly beautiful, surrealistic style.[12][13] Set in Paris, it contains a wide-ranging discourse on the music of J.S. Bach, with special attention to the Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. Her first collection of poetry, Elysian Sonnets and Other Poems (1990) was published as a chapbook in Paris.[14]

In 1995 Andreacchi was a collaborator in the project Violin Music in the Age of Shopping, a work by avant-garde composer and violinist Jon Rose. For her contribution Andreacchi was made an Honorary Fellow of the Rosenberg Foundation (Sydney, Australia).[15]

The novel Scarabocchio (1995), an architecturally adventurous ‘inverted fugue’, is based on Goethe’s Italian Journey, and continues the discussion of Bach through the character of ‘Barton Beale’, a lightly fictionalized Glenn Gould.[16] The short novel Poetry and Fear (2001) is set in the Berlin opera world, and uses the myth of Orpheus to explore themes of love and loss. Later works showed an increased emphasis on Christian spiritual themes. A continued interest in the culture of the far east is reflected in Two Brothers (2007), a version of the Korean pansori tale Heungbu and Nolbu. Recent work has shown a turning away from Christianity towards an avowedly feminist point of view.[17][18] Her semi-autobiographical novel You Are There Behind My Eyelids Forever , a coming of age story with feminist and erotic content, is set in the Inwood of her childhood.

Publications

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Novels

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  • Give My Heart Ease ISBN 0-932966-90-X (1989)
  • Music for Glass Orchestra ISBN 1-85242-299-8 (1993)
  • The Prodigy ISBN 978-1-4452-0980-7 (1994, first complete print edition 2009)
  • Scarabocchio ISBN 978-1-4092-3643-6 (2008)
  • Poetry and Fear ISBN 978-1-4092-3642-9 (2008)
  • You Are There Behind My Eyelids Forever ISBN 978-0-244-52504-0 (2021)

Plays

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Short fiction

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  • The Golden Dolphins (The Carolina Quarterly 1991)
  • The Black Swan (1994)
  • Violin Music in the Age of Shopping -The Judy Papers (Editors Jon Rose and Rainer Linz) ISBN 0-646-18105-X,(NMA Publications, 1994)
  • Golden Vanities, Stories, Tales and Occasional Pieces (2018) ISBN 978-0-244-10691-1, (Andromache Books, 2018)

Poetry

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References

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  1. ^ "Grace Andreacchi". Poets & Writers. March 18, 2008. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  2. ^ "Another Country". Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  3. ^ "Grace Andreacchi". Poets & Writers. March 18, 2008. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  4. ^ "SNAKESKIN: The Poetry Webzine". www.snakeskinpoetry.co.uk. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  5. ^ "Grace Andreacchi". Poets & Writers. March 18, 2008. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  6. ^ "Grace Andreacchi". Poets & Writers. March 18, 2008. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  7. ^ "An American Writer in Paris". Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  8. ^ "John le Carré - Sie Verlassen den Amerikanischen Sektor". Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  9. ^ Phillips, Jo (May 8, 2013). "Grace Andreacchi". Cent Magazine. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  10. ^ Shoes, Agnieszkas (June 24, 2010). "The Man Who Painted Agnieszka's Shoes: Andromache: A little Corner of Excellence". The Man Who Painted Agnieszka's Shoes. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  11. ^ Kirkus Reviews, 1989 and Publishers Weekly, 1989
  12. ^ Review of Contemporary Fiction, June 1993
  13. ^ The Sunday Times, September 12, 1993
  14. ^ Beyond Baroque Chapbook Archive [1].
  15. ^ The Rosenberg Archive [2].
  16. ^ "scarabocchio1". www.kissthewitch.co.uk. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  17. ^ "Maxim Gorky and Grandmother's God".
  18. ^ "Literary Mothers".
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