Carmela Delia Lanza

Carmela Delia Lanza

Carmela Delia Lanzabegan writing poetry when one of her elementary school teachers asked the class to write a poem using the weekly spelling words. A child of a working-class, Italian immigrant family (her first language, Napolitano, has been added to the UNESCO list of endangered languages of the world), Lanza lived on the margins of suburban, middle-class America. She was the first member of her family to complete college, and she has traveled extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Mexico. She is an assistant professor of English at the University of New Mexico at Gallup, in Gallup, NM where she teaches mostly first-generation college students from poor and working-class communities. Malafemmina Press published Lanza’s first chapbook of poems, Long Island Girl, and Finishing Line Press recently published her second collection of poems, So Rough A Messenger. Her work has also appeared in numerous journals including Melus, Frontiers, BorderSenses, Southwestern Women: New Voices, Puerto del Sol, The Taos Review, and Voices in Italian Americana.

Residency/Fellowship

Immigration / Emigration 2015/2016

Website

carmeladelialanza.blogspot.com

Location

Gallup, NM USA