The Brookhaven Free Library held a literary lecture event for Linda Leuzzi and her roman a clef, “My Year with the Italian Girl,” which focuses on Vivian, the editor of a local newspaper …
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The Brookhaven Free Library held a literary lecture event for Linda Leuzzi and her roman a clef, “My Year with the Italian Girl,” which focuses on Vivian, the editor of a local newspaper in Bellport, and her life with foreign exchange student Francesca, who joins the high school’s step squad.
Held on Sunday, March 13 at Butera’s in Sayville, the event was nearly sold out to the community, who came to hear Leuzzi discuss her inspirations for her characters and her life’s journey to become a writer.
Prior to entering journalism, Leuzzi was a public relations executive at Avon and wrote stories celebrating saleswomen in the field.
The editor of a local paper in the Midwest who ran one of her stories praised her for her writing ability, and Leuzzi went on to intern for Newsday before becoming the executive editor of the Long Island Advance, one of a consortium of papers owned by the Tuthill family of Bellport.
“John Tuthill really had the newspaper chops,” said Linda, who based a character in “My Year with the Italian Girl” on the father of the Advance (and Suffolk County News’s) current publisher, Terry Tuthill.
With the book set in 1985, Leuzzi was asked why a story with such contemporary relevance, with a friendship between a European girl and Black teenager, was not told with today’s backdrop.
“I wanted to write about a simpler time,” said Leuzzi, who said she opted for the era before social media.
Hosting over a half-dozen foreign exchange students over the years, Leuzzi spoke of the worldly perspective the teenagers brought with them to the United States.
One said, “I know who your president is, why doesn’t anyone know mine?” after being bewildered at the lack of international sensitivity of other adolescents.
Leuzzi’s longtime experience as editor-in-chief, dating back to the mid-1990s until her retirement in 2016, with occasional returns to the editor’s chair, left her with a plethora of stories to choose from to highlight in the book.
“I’ve been an environmentalist all my life,” said Leuzzi about her choice to focus on the events surrounding the Wiley property in Bellport.
In more recent times, Leuzzi has written environmental stories about preservation, CEED, Mama Farm and Patchogue and Bellport Village initiatives.
The book is available for $15.99 on Amazon.
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