Robert Viscusi is the author of the novel Astoria, which won an American Book Award in 1996, and of the long poem An Oration upon the Most Recent Death of Christopher Columbus, which he has performed in cities across the United States and in Italy. His poems and essays have appeared in many journals, from Yale Italian Studies to Barrow Street. He is professor of English and executive officer of The Wolfe Institute for the Humanities at Brooklyn College.