A former metropolitan New York college professor, John Lawrence Darretta graduate from Iona College in New Rocelle, NY and  holds a Ph.D. in American Literature from Fordham University. As Fulbright Professor to Italy, he taught at universities in Milan and Turin. He studied at Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin and The American Film Institute in Los Angeles. He has written articles on American literature and Italian cinema and is author of Vittorio DeSica (G. K. Hall) and Before the Sun Has Set: Retribution in the Fiction of Flannery O’Connor (Peter Lang Publishing). His poetry has appeared in America Magazine, Penwood Review, Journal of Pastoral Counseling, Haiku Journal, First Literary Review-East, The Avalon Literary Review and other venues. Nature’s Wheel, a book of his poetry, was published by Kelsay Books. He recently authored Sacred Senses in Sacred Space: A Journey into a Church (Gatekeeper Press) and a new collection of poems, Here and Now, Then and There (Kelsay Books).