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Jan. 18, 2007
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Journalist, MU prof takes on
new title: published author |
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Name: Paul Salsini
Age: 71
Occupation: Teacher at Marquette University
Parish: SS. Peter and Paul,
Milwaukee
Book recently read: “What Is the What,” by Dave Eggers
Favorite movie: “King of Hearts”
Favorite quotation: Prayer of
St. Francis (Catholic Herald photo by Sam Lucero) |
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A mainstay in Marquette University’s journalism department for 36 years, teacher and writing coach Paul Salsini has published his first novel, “The Cielo: A Novel of Wartime Tuscany.” It’s a book he never intended to write.
“I have never wanted to write a novel,” said Salsini. “It never occurred to me.”
The son of Italian immigrants, Salsini and his wife, Barbara, whom he met when they were both journalism students at Marquette, traveled to Tuscany and met his cousin, who pointed out a farmhouse where Salsini’s grandfather once lived.
“My cousin said that during World War II, villagers were forced to flee,” he said. Villagers fled to similar farmhouses in the hills to avert the German army.
“I thought, ‘That’s an interesting story.’ I wanted to write it as non-fiction because I’m a journalist, but I was here, the story was there, and I don’t know the language well enough to read the documents about it. On the plane back home, I thought I’ll just make it up and write fiction.”
A former report-er, editor and staff development director at the Milwaukee Journal for 30 years, Salsini said that he knew in eighth grade that he wanted to be a journalist.
“I wanted to be close to the scene, but not part of the scene,” he explained. “I was interested in politics and public affairs, and this put me close to it. This was a natural fit.”
Later in his career, Salsini tried his hand at teaching. He approached Marquette about an open teaching position. He currently teaches feature writing and critical writing, as well as serving as Marquette’s writing coach.
“Every class is different, but one thing remains constant and that is when students get it,” Salsini explained. “There’s a point in each semester, I can tell they’ve moved on from just doing what’s expected of them to having a spark. It’s so satisfying.”
Salsini said he also finds satisfaction serving as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion at SS. Peter and Paul in Milwaukee. He said he enjoys the sense of community at his church, as well as the liturgy and “being a eucharistic minister is part of that.
“I like the formality of (the liturgy), the ritual, but also the sense that something is really happening here that transcends other things in our lives,” he said.
Salsini said he found himself thinking about those involved in current wars when writing “The Cielo” and saw how deep faith can benefit people.
“This is a story of people surviving under these circumstances. I think of people in Iraq, Lebanon, Darfur, people who don’t have food or electricity, but somehow they survive and have faith in God and the community and find inner strength,” he said. “This is something that develops in us when we’re under terrible circumstances that we find faith and courage that we didn’t know we had. It was a realization for me in writing this, that this is what happens.”
The story also profiles a fictional priest, Fr. Luigi, who becomes a hero.
“The priest is forced to remain in the village by the Nazis,” said Salsini. “He’s a very simple priest; he has such faith in God and he doesn’t think he’s heroic, but yet we find out that he’s helping the partisans. He’s risking his life because of his faith in God.”
Salsini also feels strongly about the AIDS epidemic and volunteers at and serves on the board of the Wisconsin AIDS Foundation.
“I wanted to do volunteer work, so I went to the AIDS Resource Center and became a buddy where you work one on one with someone,” he said. “I’ve had three buddies who later died. They taught me very much. It’s an issue I think people are forgetting about, but it’s very important.” |
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