James is available for readings, book club visits, lectures, and something rarer: evenings where food, music, and fiction come together the way they do in Fefè itself. In person or virtual — get in touch to discuss.
James Abruzzo and daughter Gianna Abruzzo
Readings, book club visits, speaking engagements, and immersive evenings around the novel — in person or virtual.
James joins book clubs in person or over video to discuss Fefè, answer questions, and talk about the music, food, and places that shaped the novel. Use the book club guide as a starting point.
James reads from the novel at bookstores, libraries, cultural institutions, and private events. Readings can include a listening segment from the novel’s 27-piece musical companion and a conversation with the audience.
Drawing on four decades advising the world’s great cultural institutions, James speaks on arts leadership, the relationship between music and narrative, Sicilian-American identity, and the creative process.
Topics include: Music as Literary Structure · The Immigrant’s Inheritance · What It Costs to Build an Institution · Debut Fiction at Any Age
The novel is rich with food, wine, music, and the rituals of gathering. James dreams of events that honor all of this: an evening where he cooks from the novel, plays the piano, and reads. A dinner where Sicilian wine flows and the music plays. A gathering that feels like being inside the book.
James is eager to collaborate with cultural organizations, restaurants, wineries, and arts institutions to create experiences that bring the novel’s world to life.
James is particularly interested in connecting with Italian-American communities across the Northeast and beyond. Fefè speaks directly to the experience of carrying a culture across an ocean — and to what survives the crossing. He welcomes invitations from cultural centers, community organizations, Italian-language groups, and diaspora communities.
Events will be posted here as they are confirmed. Subscribe to James’s Substack or follow @jamesabruzzowritings on Instagram to be the first to hear about appearances.