The Finest Thought Leaders
Christine Ristaino
Christine Ristaino is a professor at Emory University, where she teaches Italian literature, culture, and language classes. She has co-authored an academic publication entitled Lucrezia Marinella and the āQuerelle des Femmesā in Seventeenth-Century Italy through Farleigh Dickinson Press as well as the first edition of a book series called The Italian Virtual Class, which teaches language through cultural acquisition. She currently teaches a creative writing-focused class on Italian memoir, as well as co-teaches a class comparing Italy and China through the medium of food (noodles in particular).
Ristaino is also an Atlanta author whose memoir, All the Silent Spaces, published in July 2019 by She Writes Press, confronts the topics of violence, identity, and discrimination.Ā Ā She writes and publishes articles, essays, OpEds, and non-fiction, and presents her work in various forums throughout the U.S. and abroad.Ā
Christine speaks on such subjects as:
- fostering social change
- challenging and changing the paradigms around sexual assault
- women'sĀ issues
- reclaiming life after tragedy
What are people saying about Christine?
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"All the Silent Spaces is gorgeous, heart-wrenching, and brave. Ristainoās memoir invites readers to be present to suffering, to seek common purpose, and ultimately to heal our fractured world."
~ Ā Marie Marquardt, author of Flight Season
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"Throughout the process of reading All the Silent Spaces, I have felt validated in my most-shunned memories of sexual trauma. From her frank representation of the silent struggle for regaining ourselves, Christine Ristainoās vulnerability has given me solidarity and hope for community around this exiled discussion topic."
~ Halla Maynard, Survivor
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"Christine Ristaino transverses complex landscapes of experience: racial and ethnic identities; family ties; the aftermath of violent crime. Her honest reflections remind us there are no easy answers, but that we must continue to ask the difficult questions. This moving memoir is a gift."
~ Dr. Leslie Harris, Professor of African American History and Co-Editor of Slavery and the University: Histories and LegaciesĀ
The Christine Ristaino Stories...
The Compendium podcast interview welcomes author Christine Ristaino of All the Silent Spaces, who is also is a professor at Emory University where she teaches Italian literature, memoir, culture, and language classes. As a published author, in addition to her book, Christine Ristaino, has published articles in the Guardian, Pacific Standard, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution on coping with violence and topics around diversity. During this interview, she shares her personal story behind her memoir, All the Silent Spaces, the greater issues associated with violence, and her personal voyage behind overcoming grief.
Writing is Transformational ...
Ever since I was a child I have loved to write. From that love, I have written short stories, articles, textbooks, OpEds and a memoir. Ā
As a speaker, I am extremely honored to share my life's experiences with you.
I have been working on telling my story since 2008, shortly after I was attacked in a parking lot in front of my children. My book, All the Silent Spaces, shares what it feels like to survive violence--three times.Ā Ā It describes what it's like to face violent events, past and present, in a way that changes everything.
I speak about letting go of what you think you know in order to rebuild.
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GET CHRISTINE'S BOOK
In September 2007, Christine Ristaino was attacked in a store parking lot while her three- and five-year-old children watched. In All the Silent Spaces, Ristaino shares what it felt like to be an ordinary person confronted with an extraordinary eventāa woman trying to deal with acute trauma even as she went on with her everyday life, working at a university and parenting two children with her husband. She not only narrates how this event changed her but also tells how looking at the event through both the reactions of her community and her own sensibility allowed her to finally face two other violent episodes she had previously experienced. As new memories surfaced after the attack, it took everything in Ristainoās power to not let catastrophe unravel the precarious threads holding everything together.
Moving between the greater issues associated with violence and the personal voyage of overcoming grief, All the Silent Spaces is about letting go of what you think you know in order to rebuild.
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