Italian-Born Author And Playwright Rosanna Staffa Releases Debut Novel THE WAR ENDS AT FOUR

Distinguished author and playwright Rosanna Staffa (The Innocence of Ghosts Off-Broadway) has released her debut novel, The War Ends at Four (Regal House Publishing; May 10, 2023; ISNB-13: 9781646033317; US $18.95 / CAN $24.99 Paperback).

In The War Ends at Four, author Rosanna Staffa explores the quest of a perpetual outsider looking for a true home while coming to terms with the Italy she left behind and the America she found. Renata, an Italian acupuncturist in Minneapolis, falls madly in love with a charismatic actor. Once married, she discovers his passion is not focused on her alone. With her marriage and her small acupuncture clinic in crisis, she is called to her father's deathbed in Milan. There Renata again faces the slights she suffered in childhood as the daughter of an immigrant from Naples. Gripped by grief and anxiety over her future, she discovers that her father, a survivor of WWII, believed until the end in risk-taking as a life-affirming necessity. With newfound courage, Renata stumbles into the lure of an old love and the magic of a new one. Her final action surprises even herself. 

About the Author

Rosanna Staffa is an Italian-born playwright and author. Her debut novel, The War Ends At Four, was published by Regal House Publishing on May 10, 2023.

Her essay Holy is a prize winner in the TSR Review and nominated for the 2022 Notable in Best American Essays. Her work can be found in the Best Small Fictions Anthology 2021. Rosanna is a recipient of Honorable Mention for The Tiferet Journal 2019 Writing Contest Award. She is a Short Story Finalist for The Masters Review Anthology and for the 47th New Millennium Writing Awards. Pushcart Prize nominee.

Most recently, her work was in Gargoyle Magazine, Brevity's Nonfiction Blog, The Sun, The Examined Life Journal, and JuxtaProse.

Rosanna's plays have been seen on stages in Tokyo, New York, Seattle, and others. Her play The Innocence of Ghosts was staged Off-Broadway in New York and was filmed for inclusion in the Lincoln Center Theatre on Film Library. Her plays are published by Heinemann and Smith & Kraus. Rosanna's play The Biggest Little House is included in the Plays for Early Learning Anthology published by the University of Minnesota Press.

She is a recipient of a McKnight Advancement Grant, a Jerome Fellowship, and an AT&T/On Stage Grant.

Rosanna holds a Ph.D. in Modern Foreign Languages from Universita degli Studi in Milan and an MFA in Fiction from the Naslund-Mann, formerly Spading University's School of Creative and Professional Writing. She is a member of the Loft Literary Center and an Affiliated Member of the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. She is a member of the Italian Cultural Center in Minneapolis, the Italian American Studies Association in New York, and of the Italian American Writers Association. She is a Hedgebrook Writers Retreat alumna.

Rosanna is a Licensed Acupuncturist from the California Acupuncture College in Los Angeles and The Zhejiang College of Acupuncture in Hangzhou, PR of China