I was born in Prague a while back to an Italian father and an American mother. Thanks to my diplomat father and other vicissitudes, by the time I was twelve I had lived in seven cities in six countries and learned four languages. I firmly believe my unrooted childhood helped me become a writer.
I came to the U.S. when I was twelve and returned to Italy after I graduated from Barnard College.
In Rome I worked in the movie industry as a dubbing producer/director with Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Lina Wertmuller and many others. I came back to New York City in 1980, married, received an MFA from the Columbia’s Graduate Writing program and became an American citizen.
Under the pseudonym Camilla T. Crespi, I’ve published seven novels in “The Simona Griffo” mystery series, featuring Simona Griffo, a nosy Italian immigrant who loves to cook. The series also sold to Germany. Several short stories have appeared in mystery anthologies. The Breakfast Club Murder, featuring newly divorced Lori Corvino, was published in February, 2014.
As Camilla Trinchieri, I wrote The Price of Silence, published by Soho Press in 2007. The paperback and Italian editions came out in 2008. Seeking Alice, loosely based on my mother’s life in Europe during WWII, was published in Italian in 2010, and in English in 2016. A short story, “Kitchen Communion” appeared in the anthology The Milk of Almonds, edited by Edvige Giunta and Louise DeSalvo and published by The Feminist Press in 2002. A personal essay, “A String of Beads” is included in the anthology Unrooted Childhoods, edited by Faith Eidse and published by the Intercultural Press in 2004.
In May, 2014, my Italian publisher, MarcosyMarcos, released my latest Trinchieri novel—What Really Happened to Billy, under the title Verso domani. In 2019 Soho Press published Murder in Chianti, the first of my Tuscan mystery series, followed by The Bitter Taste of Murder and Murder on the Vine.