"Searching for Italy" author Celeste Calvitto worked for nearly 40 years as a newspaper editor and reporter. She is currently a freelance writer and owner of a monthly publication in southeast Indiana. She was born in Florida and grew up in Ohio and Maryland. A graduate of the University of Florida, she has worked for newspapers in New York, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and South Dakota. She was the recipient of an award for column writing from the New York Press Association and for a news series from the South Dakota Press Association. While residing in the suburban New York City town of Mount Kisco, where for many years she was executive editor of a group of weekly newspapers, she was named the 1998 Woman of the Year by the Italian-American Club of Northern Westchester, was a Knights of Columbus Civic Award winner, chairwoman of the 1992 Mount Kisco Columbus Quincentenary Committee and chairwoman of the Mayor's Committee on Community Relations. Her paternal grandparents were Italian immigrants who settled in Johnston, Rhode Island.