About
Christina Marrocco is an award winning author from the Chicago area. Her latest release (any minute now) The Way Beauty Comes Apart is a novel-in-stories set in Wales and told by the dead. Her 2022 debut novel, Addio, Love Monster won a Book of the Year award from the Chicago Writers Association. Christina writes character-driven accounts of life that are visceral and transportive. Her work often showcases working-class people, the realities they face, and the landscapes they inhabit. Christina has a deep interest in ancient beliefs and practices, and this shows in her novels, essays, and poems. Her doctoral dissertation, The Evil Eye in Italian American Literature established her reputation in ethnic studies. An eclectic writer, she’s also a poet whose work has appeared in many journals including Ovunque Siamo, The Laurel Review, Silverbirch Press, House Mountain Review, Red Fern Press, and Voices from the Attic. Christina teaches Creative Writing and other courses at Elgin Community College.
Featured Work
Addio, Love Monster
Addio, Love Monster is a novel-in-stories spanning generations of immigrants on the "regular" yet remarkable Singer Street of fictional mid-century Mulberry Park, just outside of Chicago. Marrocco transports readers into this small world, one where Signora Giuseppa, the "iron fist" of Singer Street, does all it takes and more to keep her grown children nearby. Where Enrico the widower creeps in the night, looking for a new wife in all the wrong places. Where Nicky the golden-gloves boxer wrestles with what he saw in the basement as a child--and Lena, his wife, also wrestles--with how to deal with Nicky's violence. In these pages you will find humor and sorrow, resentment and adoration, and the churn and gritty realities of a long ago neighborhood where everyone knows everyone--both too much and too little.
