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Luisa Rossina Villani was born on a vineyard in Tujunga, California. She holds degrees in English from California State University Northridge, a Masters in Fine Art in Poetry and a Masters in Women's Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. She has taught English in Russia and the Ukraine, and in 1997 was the coordinator for Project Chiapas, a nonprofit organization which conducted a field study of indigenous politics at the Na-Bolom Cultural Museum in San Cristobal, Mexico.
Her short stories have appeared in The Literary Review, The Lullwater Review, and her novel, The Battle for the Red June, was semifinalist for the James Fellowship for the Novel-In-Progress from the Heekin Group Foundation in 1999. Her poetry chapbook, On the Eve of Everything, was published by WECS Press in 1998 as winner of their annual competition.
Villani's poems have appeared in The New England Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Hiram Poetry Review, and other journals, and she has been a finalist for the Pablo Neruda Prize. Among her other awards are included the Suzanne Brabant Memorial Award, An Academy of American Poets Prize, and Associated Writing Programs Intro Journals Award, and a Masters Poetry Series Award.
A former Bucknell Fellow, she currently teaches at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
