Maria Lisella
Travel Writer, Editor,
Communications Specialist
More than 25 years of reporting about the travel industry for the travel trade and consumer publications. Currently freelance and contribute to Jax Fax Travel Marketing Magazine; Destinations of the World and Sherman's Travel. Have spelunked in caves in Madhyar Pradesh, ridden horseback in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro, explored the great art museums of Europe, hiked Mt. Etna in Sicily and Mount Washington, and sipped Armagnac in Gascony, France.
Editor/Staff Reporter
Jax Fax Travel Marketing Magazine, editor;; Senior editor at Travel Agent, specializing in tour operations and destination developments in Europe, Africa, and Mexico; Travel & Leisure Magazine, domestic and international editions.
Columnist/Contributor
Diversion Magazine, Fra Noi, Newark Star Ledger
Travel and Food Writing
Alta Cucina, Bonjour Paris, Boston Herald, Dream of Italy, Elite Traveler, Global Foodie, Incentive Magazine, Travel & Leisure, Fra Noi, German Life, Multicultural Travel News, Oggi’s Italian-American supplement, Solo Lady, The New York Daily News.
Travel Industry Coverage
Travel Agent, Agent at Home, Jax Fax, Destinations of the World
Custom Publishing
Austrian Tourist Office, Tourist Office for Flanders-Belgium, Travel & Leisure, Incentive Magazine, Travel Agent Magazine.
Corporate Writing
Public relations copywriting, advertorials, brochures, press kits and web content for clients including American Express Vacations, the Associtation of Travel Marketing Executives, Spring O’Brien Public Relations and Advertising, M. Booth & Associates Public Relations, Central Holidays, General Tours, Kompas Holidays International, Pestana Hotels & Resorts, Sherman's Travel, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Travel Impressions, the Association of Travel Marketing Executives, the American Tourism Society and Your Invitation to Europe (European Travel Commission supplements in the Boston Globe, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post).
Public Speaking
Have addressed industry groups, travel agents, on destination development, lectured on culture before the Italian American Cultural Roundtable; participant on panel at John Jay College on Value of Studying Abroad, Wagner College.
Academic Presentations
CUNY Graduate Center’s John D. Calandra Institute for Italian American Studies - the Italian Diaspora and social impact of Italian Americans on the development of tourism to Italy.
Publicist, Event Planner
For non-profit organization, the Italian American Writers Association; co-curate longest-running literary series at Cornelia St. Café. Co-editing an anthology based on those readings.
Literary Achievements
Recently awarded a Merida Fellowship from the U.S. Poets in Mexico. Pushcart Poetry Prize nominated work appears in Two Naked Feet and Amore on Hope Street available at Amazon.com Charter member of online poetry circle, Brevitas, which produces the Annual Festival of the Short Poem at the Bowery Poetry Club; won honors from the Allen Ginsburg Poetry Award, Paumonok Poetry Award. Creative nonfiction cited by Canadian Italian Writers Association, Chusma House Publications, and Paolucci Award for Italian American Writing, a short story will appear in More Sweet Lemon: Writing with a Sicilian Accent, 2010. Finalist for Poet Laureate of Queens in 2007.
Samples of My Work
Sherman's Travel Summer Issue
Taiwan-click Special Sections-Taiwan
http://www.shermanstravel.com/magazine/
Jax Fax
Boroughing in the Big Apple
El Salvador's New World
Sailing Croatia's Adriatic Coast
Alta Cucina
Dream of Italy
German Life Magazine
Solo Lady
Maria Lisella
718-777-1178
marialisella@aol.com