Self-Published Book Wins Major Writing Award

The Council for Wisconsin Writers, the major writers’ organization in the state, has awarded its top book-length fiction award to The Cielo: A Novel of Wartime Tuscany by Paul Salsini. The Cielo was the only self-published book to win an award in the competition. Honorable mention in the book-length category went to a book published by Viking.

The Anne Powers Award for Book-Length Fiction will be presented at an awards ceremony in Milwaukee on May 19. The award includes a $500 prize and a week’s stay at Edenfred, an artists’ retreat in Madison, Wis.

Inspired by the experiences of the author’s relatives during WWII, The Cielo tells of a group of villagers who are trapped in a Tuscan farmhouse when the SS occupies their village. As the war rages on, the villagers overcome petty differences, endure deprivation, face betrayal by one of them, fearlessly take in an escaped POW and survive a raid by the SS.

In the course of this, a girl finds love, two boys become heroes and secrets are revealed. The villagers’ story is closely entwined with a real event, the massacre of 560 innocent civilians by the Germans on Aug. 12, 1944, in the village of Sant’Anna di Stazzema.

The Cielo is Paul Salsini’s first novel. A veteran journalist in Milwaukee, he now teaches writing courses at Marquette University.

More information can be found at www.thecielobook.com