The Team

Good writers are hard to find. The American has been fortunate beyond measure to assemble a group of veteran journalists and younger writers. Since the magazine began publishing online in 2004, some have written once, others dozens of times. But each has done his or her part with enthusiasm and a commitment to professional ethics.

Below you’ll find a list of the most recent contributors to the project (in all, we’ve published some 200 writers). Some live in Italy while others write from afar. A list of their published work for us may be found below their brief biographies. We do not list the personal email addresses of our writers at their request. Some have blogs and personal sites, and many of those are also listed. The writers are responsible for the content of their personal biographies and are also accountable for their spirit and accuracy. Errors in fact, however, are the full responsibility of the magazine. Point them out and we’ll correct them.

If you wish to get in touch with one of our writers about their work you may write to them in the contact box below. Whether they choose to answer is up to them.

Finally, while all content has been vetted and edited, the views represented in our reports, interviews, profiles, and first-person columns represent those of the authors and not the magazine. The American is a forum for ideas about Italy and the world around it. It’s also a venue where expatriates can read about what their fellows are thinking. If you’d like to join our team, write to us at the maginfo address and we’ll open up a conversation. Eloquence and insight is what we seek and what we hope to have provided so far. Our magazine is the sum of its wonderfully disparate parts. It is “old school” in that it does not represent a forum for reader ideas and “quickie” feedback. Nor is it a blog. Instead, it is a kind of “log,” which we see as an effort to compile many life narratives, some from Italy, others not. With luck, bits of wisdom follow suit.

Current Writers

Miral Askar
Miral Askar, born in Egypt, raised in Cairo and Germany, is a tech industry Product Owner and an advocate for justice, anti-colonialism, and human rights. When not building products or resurrecting suppressed narratives, she is most likely debating the ethics of empire.
Patrick Burnson
Patrick Burnson worked for The Rome Daily American and the International Herald Tribune early in his career. Using the pen name of Paul Duclos, he is the author of the novel “Flags of Convenience.”
Kristine Crane, Associate Editor
Kristine Crane is Associate Editor of The American and the author of the "L'Americana" column. She lives and writes in North Central Florida. She was formerly a Fulbright scholar and journalist in Rome, where she helped found "The American." She is originally from Iowa City.
Suzanne Dunaway
Suzanne Dunaway, a longtime major magazine writer and artist, is the author and illustrator of "Rome, At Home, The Spirit of La Cucina Romana in Your Own Kitchen" (Broadway Books) and "No Need To Knead, Handmade Italian Breads in 90 Minutes" (Hyperion). She taught cooking for 15 years privately and at cooking schools in Los Angeles, and now maintains a personal website and a blog. She divides her time between southern France and Italy.
S.T. Evans
S.T. Evans is a writer and blogger who was born in England, raised as a citizen of planet Earth, adores cats, and explores the connections between folklore, history, culture, and the human experience. He is interested in how ancient tales, folklore, and myths still influence modern society. The American has verified his identity.
Gabrielle Giannone
Gabrielle Giannone is a writer and artist. She runs a small business. She lived in Venice, Italy, in 2024, but has since returned to the U.S. while working on getting dual citizenship. She writes for a travel magazine based in the Outer Banks, NC, as well as the monthly Book Column. A voracious reader and lover of the arts, she aspires to write her own novels.
Betsy Houlton
Born and raised in New York City, Betsy has worked as a journalist for a variety of newspapers including the Cody Enterprise in Wyoming and the New York Daily News. Photography has played an important role in her storytelling and a clunky Nikon ranks among her favorite companions. A French citizen, she lives in rural Normandy with her blacksmith husband and two Potcake dogs rescued from the streets of Guadeloupe.
Madeleine Johnson, Associate Editor
Madeleine Johnson has written her "Notebook" column for more than a decade. She lived in Italy for almost 30 years, mostly in Milan, before returning to the U.S. in 2017. Her work has been published in the "Financial Times" and "New York Post."
Joseph Karbousky
Joseph Karbousky has been a freelance writer for over 15 years. Hailing from Detroit, Michigan, Joseph has been passionate about sports and current events since he was a child. While he fell short of his dream of playing in the major leagues, his desire to talk baseball has not waned. A fantasy football enthusiast who loves making NFL and college football predictions, Joseph also has a love for music and has been playing/teaching guitar for decades.
Jane Lasky
Jane Lasky wrote a syndicated business travel column that ran in thirty newspapers for twenty years. She contributed features to myriad magazines, like Vogue and Esquire, and authored several nonfiction books, such as The Women's Travel Guide and The Insider's Guide to California. Lasky has edited dozens of Fodor's guidebooks, produced trippy segments for MTV Asia, and swapped tips on tipping in Chicago on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
Stewart J. Lawrence
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Stewart J. Lawrence is a sociologist and veteran journalist and public policy analyst who writes frequently on U.S. politics and pop culture trends. In recent years, his commentaries and reviews have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Huffington Post, Politico, The Guardian, and CounterPunch.
Mia Levy
Born and raised in London, Mia Levy began writing essays in her first year of university as a way of archiving the discoveries she is making about herself and the people she meets along the way. Growing up with an English father and Dominican mother, she is interested in youth subcultures, family histories, and relationships. Writing for those who find themselves in the awkward phases of young adult life, she brews answers to the "Who am I?" question, sipping on a mug of English breakfast tea.
Aldo Magagnino
Aldo Magagnino was born in Alezio (Apulia). After a career as a teacher of English he now works fulltime as a literary translator. He now lives in the Apulian town of Presicce, a few miles from Santa Maria di Leuca, land's end of the Italian boot, with his wife, two dogs and a variable number of cats.
Naeema Naqeeb, Managing Editor
Naeema Naqeeb is the Managing Editor of The American.
Will Keppler Robinson
Will Keppler Robinson was born in Greenwich Village, New York, in 2005. He has written two poetry collections and is currently working on his third novel. A passionate lover of music, he also translates and writes songs. He now lives in Paris, pursuing a dual major in history and English literature at the Sorbonne.
Susie Rom
Susie Rom is a Media Production student at the University of Florida who believes storytelling grows our capacity for empathy. She works across physical and digital media, blending lived experience, cultural curiosity, and intentional craft to create work that connects on a human level. Currently studying Italian and living in Milan from January to April 2026, she is drawn to stories shaped by place, people, and everyday moments. Susie aspires to live and work in Italy, using visual and written storytelling to explore culture, belonging, and connection.
Valentina Salcedo
Born in a small Colombian town, Valentina followed her heart and moved to Trieste, where she got a job as a journalist. She has lived in Colombia, Spain, Germany, and Italy. She is the most recent winner of the award “Città di Trieste” in the international women's writing competition in Friuli Venezia Giulia. She is a fan of Italian cuisine, but she is simply unable to finish an entire pizza on her own!
Eleonora Saravalle
Manhattan-based Eleonora was born in Milan. She studied at schools in Italy, England, and the U.S. before earning her degree at Brown. When Eleonora is not acting, writing, or watching comedy, she spends her time drinking tea, worrying too much about everything, and spouting spoonerisms.
Leigh Smith, Managing Editor
Leigh Smith began her restless creative career some years ago as an editor for a literary magazine and copyeditor for daily newspapers. Since then, she has edited, proofread, or fact-checked a variety of copy, from nursing and anatomy texts to shapeshifter erotica to a best-selling reference guide on aluminum Christmas trees.
Book Staff
The Book Staff represents a series of authors who review books for the magazine on a regular basis.
Lucy Umber
Lucy Umber is is the assumed name of an American educator, editor, and writer who resides and works in an East Coast state. She has elected to conceal her identity to avoid causing potential offense to friends and coworkers in her tightly knit community. "The American" has verified her actual name and the authenticity of her background.
Jennifer Vinyl
Jennifer Vinyl is a third generation New Yorker from Manhattan's Upper West Side.
Christopher P. Winner
Christopher P. Winner is a veteran American journalist and essayist who was born in Paris in 1953 and has lived in Europe for more than 30 years. See his website.