Grace DiSanto

Grace DiSanto (1924-1993) was an American journalist and poet based in North Carolina.

Grace DiSanto
BornGrace Johanne DeMarco
1924
Derby, Connecticut
DiedJune 4, 1993
Morganton, North Carolina
Alma materBelmont Abbey College
SpouseFrank M. DiSanto

Biography

She was born in Derby, Connecticut, in 1924 to Richard and Grace DeMarco. After moving to North Carolina in 1961, she graduated summa cum laude from Belmont Abbey College with a bachelor's degree in English.[1] After college, she spent ten years working as a reporter, drama critic, and feature writer for the Australian Associated Press (New York City), the Ansonia Sentinel (Ansonia, Connecticut), and the Sunday Herald (New Haven, Connecticut).[2]

DiSanto published over 180 poems in journals and anthologies, including Southern Poetry Review, Yale Literary Magazine, and New Voices II: An Anthology of Cape Fear Writers.[2] Her first volume of poetry, The Eye is Single (1981), received the 1982 Oscar Arnold Young Memorial Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society.[3] She also won several single-poem awards, including the 1982 Sam Ragan Poetry Prize for "At Grandfather Mountain II." She taught poetry at Western Piedmont Community College and was involved in the Poetry in the Schools program for Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. She was a member of the North Carolina Poetry Society, the Poetry Council of North Carolina, the New York Poetry Forum, and Centro Studie Scamb Internationale, Rome, Italy.[2]

She married Frank M. DiSanto and had a son and two daughters. She died at her home in Morganton, North Carolina, on June 4, 1993, after a long illness.[2] Her papers are on file at Western Piedmont Community College,[4] and in the Southern Appalachian Writers Collection of the Asheville Art Museum, University of North Carolina.[5]

References

  1. Barolini, Helen, ed. (1985). "Grace DiSanto". The Dream Book: An Anthology of Writings by Italian American Women. Syracuse University Press. pp. 307–310. ISBN 9780815606628.
  2. "Grace DiSanto, 68, teacher, poet, journalist, dies at home". Asheville Citizen-Times. June 5, 1993 via Newspapers.com.
  3. Eubanks, Georgann (2009). Literary Trails of the North Carolina Mountains: A Guidebook. ReadHowYouWant.com. p. 285. ISBN 9781458716132.
  4. "The Grace DiSanto Poetry Collection". Western Piedmont Community College.
  5. "Grace DiSanto". Asheville Art Museum.

Further reading

Grace DiSanto in libraries (WorldCat catalog)


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