John Lawrence Darretta

John Lawrence Darretta is currently Professor Emeritus at Iona University, New Rochelle, NY, where he taught American literature and Film Studies. He earned his Ph.D. in American Literature at Fordham University, Bronx, NY, and is author of Before the Sun Has Set: Retribution in the Fiction of Flannery O'Connor (Peter Lang, Inc.). His most recent publication is Sacred Senses in Sacred Space: A Journey into a Church (Gatekeeper Press). As a Fulbright scholar, he taught at universities in Milan and Turin and lectured on American literature and film in Rome and Trieste. He has done research and film studies at the Cinetecca nazionale in Rome, the Museo del cinema in Turin and, under a Ford Foundation Grant, at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. John has authored essays and articles on American literature and Italian Cinema. A specialist on the Italian films of the neorealist period, his book, Vittorio De Sica, published by G. K. Hall, was the first full-length work in English on the noted Italian film director. Writing poetry and short stories has been a passion since John's high school days. He is the author of Nature's Wheel (Kelsay Books), and his poems have appeared in America Magazine, The Penwood Review, The Avalon Literary Review, Pilgrim Journal, Haiku Journal, The First Literary Review-East, and other venues.