Danford, Natalie 1968(?)-

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Danford, Natalie 1968(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1968; married. Education: Yale University, B.A.; New York University, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—Lisa Bankoff, International Creative Management, 40 W. 57 St., New York, NY 10019. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, editor, translator of Italian.

WRITINGS:

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cooking Pasta, Alpha Books (New York, NY), 1999.

Inheritance (novel), St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including People, Health, Pages, Paste, Eating Well, Salon, Chicago Sun-Times, and the Los Angeles Times. Series editor, with John Kulka, "Best New American Voices," Harcourt (San Diego, CA), an annual publication, 2000—.

SIDELIGHTS:

Natalie Danford is a novelist, food writer, and editor. Her first book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cooking Pasta, displays her love for things Italian—especially the food. As a college student in Urbino, Danford was introduced to Italian culture and dining; Urbino has continued to figure in her life. From 2000, she has also edited, with John Kulka, the annual series, "Best New American Voices." The stories for the anthology are submitted by instructors from prestigious writing programs, such as the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the writing program at Stanford University, and New York University's graduate program in creative writing, where Danford studied. In an interview for the Square Table Web site, Danford noted: "One of the best things about editing the anthology is watching writers we've published develop and grow." Young writers whose work has been published in the anthology have gone on to careers as novelists; one, Kiran Desai, even won the prestigious Man Booker Prize in 2006. "I think the fact that that list is so long is a testament to our process and to the concept of the anthology," Danford further commented. Each year a new guest editor helps Danford and Kulka pick the top fifteen to seventeen stories for inclusion in the anthology. Reviewing Best New American Voices 2001 for Bookreporter.com, Rob Cline found it a "fine collection of short stories." Similarly, Janice Bees, reviewing the same collection in Kliatt, thought the "breadth of subject matter found in these stories is amazing." In a review of Best New American Voices 2003, a Publishers Weekly contributor concluded: "Overall, there are good reasons to expect promising futures from many of these writers." School Library Journal contributor Kim Dare felt that New American Voices 2005 "include[s] some of the finest fiction coming out of universities and writing workshops today."

Danford turned novelist with her 2006 work, Inheritance, about a young Italian American woman, Olivia Bonocchio, who discovers after the death of her immigrant father, Luigi, that she is now the owner of his house in Urbino, Italy. Urbino is also where Danford herself studied while in college and where she lived for several years thereafter. Traveling to Italy to see if the deed to the property is intact, Olivia learns uncomfortable truths about her father's history during World War II. Danford's novel goes back and forth in time and space, charting Luigi's life in Italy, and then in the United States, where he immigrates and marries the daughter of a store owner. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly felt "the perspectives of Luigi and Olivia provide intriguing takes on each other's hometown." Similarly, a Kirkus Reviews critic noted: "Danford skillfully interweaves Luigi's story with Olivia's to reveal a complex truth." The same reviewer went on to note that the novel is an "engaging debut," Further praise for this first novel came from Library Journal contributor Shalini Miskelly, who felt Inheritance is "an overall achievement in storytelling," and from Booklist writer Donna Seaman, who wrote: "Danford creates involving characters and choreographs intriguing predicaments."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2006, Donna Seaman, review of Inheritance, p. 24.

Kansas City Star, December 28, 2000, Andy Nelson, review of Best New American Voices 2000.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2006, review of Inheritance, p. 1032.

Kliatt, May, 2002, Janice Bees, review of Best New American Voices 2001, p. 31.

Library Journal, December 1, 2006, Shalini Miskelly, review of Inheritance, p. 107.

Publishers Weekly, September 30, 2002, review of Best New American Voices 2003, p. 51; August 14, 2006, Michelle Wildgen, review of Inheritance, p. 87; October 9, 2006, review of Inheritance, p. 36.

School Library Journal, April, 2005, Kim Dare, review of Best New American Voices 2005, p. 161.