Joseph Zeppetello

Joe Zeppetello is an educator who teaches writing and writing theory at Marist College. He has published Daring to Eat a Peach, various short stories, nonfiction, and has a keen interest in photography. These Truths is his second novel, and Intimate Disconnect is his third.

Joe places a lot of emphasis on character and character development. The people you meet in his books are the people you see in life. They live lives that require them to make hard decisions, occasionally rise above, and always endure.

As one reviewer put it, "you like his characters, and occasionally you find yourself thinking about them and wondering how they are doing."

Daring to Eat a Peach was inspired by a public reading of Prufrock over NPR and deals with the choices we make, and the choices that get made (or we allow to have made) for us.

These Truths came from the question “What if the most famous line of the Declaration of Independence was stolen from the Charter of a pirate ship commanded by an escaped slave?” It deals more with the contemporary reaction, especially among the white male power elite, to such a revelation, and is based on the real reaction that some relatives of Thomas Jefferson had to the news that they were related to a black family. In fact, Sally Hemmings makes a cameo appearance in the book.

His latest novel, Intimate Disconnect deals with a woman who is a divorce attorney and the way that professional women seeking a divorce, even powerful women, are characterized and treated by the legal and corporate patriarchal power structure. It also deals with our abysmal lack of treatment for the mentally ill.

Joe lives in the Catskill Mountains and is currently working on another novel.