The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership Welcomes New York Times Bestselling Author Adriana Trigiani May 2, 2012 in Charlot

Online, April 6, 2012 (Newswire.com) - In a stunning and ambitious departure, best-selling author Adriana Trigiani draws on her own grandparents' story of passion and perseverance in The Shoemaker's Wife (Releasing April 3, 2012), a sprawling epic of love and family, war and loss, risk and destiny-and a story Trigiani says she was meant to write.

Please join the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership for a very special evening with Ms. Trigiani on Wednesday, May 2 in Charlottesville, VA for a book talk, question and answer session, book signing, and reception with wine and hors d'oeuvres. Early Bird tickets are $50, with tickets selling for $60 after April 18th.

WHERE: The University of Virginia's Alumni Hall
211 Emmet St
Charlottesville, VA 22903
WHEN: Beginning at 6:00pm, Wednesday, May 2, 2012 (Lot and Street Parking)
RESERVATIONS: (540) 882-4929 
(Space is Limited)

Calling the book her "artistic obsession," Trigiani spent more than twenty-five years researching the details of her grandparents' relationship in order to bring them to life through the characters Ciro Lazzari and Enza Ravanelli who meet and fall in love as teenagers among the beauty of the Italian Alps. But soon the pair is torn apart by circumstances beyond their control. Ciro is banished from his village and leaves for America without explanation and eventually Enza, too, heads to America with her father.

The Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area has been home to great American storytellers including: Pulitzer Prize winners Tony Horwitz and Geraldine Brooks (Waterford, VA), Peter Taylor (UVA, Gold Metal for Short Stories, American Academy in Institute of Arts and Letters), Rita Dove (Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet), Rita Mae Brown (Ruby Fruit Jungle, Emmy Nominated, Charlottesville), Russell Baker (Leesburg, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Growing Up), Walt Whitman (served as a nurse in regional Civil War hospitals), Edgar Allen Poe (UVA), William Cabell Bruce (Pulitzer Prize Winning Writer, UVA), William Falkner (Charlottesville, taught at UVA), William H. B. Thomas (Madison Co.), John Grisham (Charlottesville), Larry McMurty (The Lonesome Dove Series, Waterford, VA), Marc Leepson (Saving Monticello, Middleburg, VA), and Nick Kotz and Henry Taylor (both Pulitzer prize winners), among others.

"The telling of our American story, through the eyes of immigrants, is an important part of our National Heritage," said Cate Magennis Wyatt, president and founder of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership. "Our nation's history serves as an example for people around the world, and has been created by families like Adriana's who brought their dreams and stories here. We are enormously grateful to Adriana for sharing her time and her story with us. We welcome everyone to join us on May 2nd to meet Adriana, who is a true American treasure."

Adriana Trigiani is beloved by millions of readers around the world for her hilarious and heartwarming novels. Adriana was raised in a small coal-mining town in southwest Virginia in a big Italian family. She chose her hometown for the setting and title of her debut novel, the critically acclaimed bestseller Big Stone Gap.
Ms. Trigiani's other bestsellers include sequels Big Cherry Holler, Milk Glass Moon, and Home to Big Stone Gap. Stand-alone novels Lucia, Lucia, The Queen of the Big Time, Rococo, all topped the bestseller lists, as did Trigiani's 2009 Very Valentine and its 2010 sequel Brava, Valentine. Trigiani teamed up with her family for Cooking With My Sisters-a cookbook co-authored by her sister Mary, with contributions from their sisters and mother. The cookbook-memoir features recipes and stories dating back hundred years from both sides of their Italian-American family. Adriana's novels have been translated and sold in over 35 countries around the world.

Critics from the Washington Post to the New York Times to People have described Adriana's novels as "tiramisu for the soul", "sophisticated and wise", and "dazzling." They agree, "her characters are so lively they bounce off the page", and that "... her novels are full bodied and elegantly written."
Trigiani's novels have been chosen for the USA Today Book Club, the Target Bookmarked series, and she's now officially a regular with Barnes & Noble Book Clubs, where she has conducted three online book clubs. Adriana speaks to book clubs from her home three to four nights a week. Her books are so popular around the world that Lucia, Lucia was selected as the best read of 2004 in England by Richard and Judy.
After graduating from Saint Mary's College in South Bend, Indiana, Adriana moved to New York City to become a playwright. She founded the all-female comedy troupe "The Outcasts," which performed on the cabaret circuit for seven years. She made her off-Broadway debut at the Manhattan Theatre Club and was produced in regional theatres of note around the country.
Among her many television credits, Adriana was a writer/producer on The Cosby Show, A Different World, and executive producer/head writer for City Kids for Jim Henson Productions. Her Lifetime television special, Growing up Funny, garnered an Emmy nomination for Lily Tomlin. In 1996, she wrote and directed the documentary film Queens of the Big Time. It won the Audience Award at the Hamptons Film Festival and toured the international film festival circuit from Hong Kong to London. Adriana then wrote a screenplay called Big Stone Gap, which became the novel that began the series. Adriana spent a year and a half waking up at three in the morning to write the novel before going into work on a television show.
Adriana is married to Tim Stephenson, the Emmy award-winning lighting designer of the Late Show with David Letterman. They live in Greenwich Village with their daughter, Lucia.
With 400 years of European, American and African-American heritage, the Journey Through Hallowed Ground is a National Heritage Area with a National Scenic Byway running through it. From Gettysburg to Monticello, it's known as the region Where America Happened™. It contains more history than any other region in the nation and includes: World Heritage sites, over 10,000 sites on the National Register of Historic Places, 49 National Heritage districts, nine Presidential homes, 13 National Park units, hundreds of African American and Native American heritage sites, 30 Historic Main Street communities, sites from the Revolutionary War, French-Indian War, War of 1812 and the largest single collection of Civil War sites in the nation.

For more information, go to: www.HallowedGround.org