Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at LSU will host Louisiana author Elisa M. Speranza at the Main Library at Goodwood, 7711 Goodwood Blvd., Baton Rouge, at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14.
Speranza will discuss the fascinating true back story to her novel, "The Italian Prisoner." The event is free and open to the public.
A work of historical fiction set in the Sicilian community of New Orleans’ French Quarter, "The Italian Prisoner" illuminates a little-known story involving Italian prisoners of war on the U.S. homefront during World War II.
"It’s an engrossing tale of wartime love, family secrets, and a young woman’s struggle to chart her own course at an inflection point in American history," a news release states.
The book was a finalist in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition and is Speranza’s first novel.
The author 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 and has worked in journalism, local government, politics and the corporate world.
She lives in New Orleans and Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts.