The awards kept coming. She won third prize in the 2011 contest “Philobiblon–Premio letterario Italia Medievale” (Philobiblon–Medieval Italy, literary award). Her winning story became one of the six stories that were included in her first book, an anthology, Grata Aura and other medieval short stories. (Italian: Grata Aura & altri gialli medievali). Nardi explains the first edition of this collection was called Medioevo in Giallo. “In Italian Giallo means two things: the color yellow and thriller. In between the two World Wars, a large Italian publishing company started to sell thrillers in books having a yellow color as the background cover. Since then, Italians use the word Giallo for thriller.”
Regardless of a particular genre, there are so many excellent Italian writers, whom Marcella Nardi admires. She speaks highly of Andrea Camilleri, who recently passed away. Camilleri wrote the famous Inspector Montalbano (Italian: Commissario Montalbano) series. Nardi cites a few of the reasons why she admires Andrea Camilleri. He started his career as a journalist, working for some of Italy’s most respected newspapers. Many of his early novels are based in Sicily. After he created the character of Inspector Montalbano, a new language evolved in his writing that mashed-up formal Italian with humorous words borrowed from the Sicilian dialect. Camilleri’s writing is said to be colorful, very visual and full of memorable characters. Of American authors, she is a fan of James Patterson, Steve Martini, Patricia Cornwell, Glen Cooper, and many others.
In 2008 Marcella Nardi moved to the Pacific Northwest. Her husband had been given a good job offer and the economic climate in Italy at that time and most of Europe was in decline. So, making the move to America was a wise decision. Nardi confesses that it has been hard to leave Italy. Her mother is still alive, and she loves to visit her, as well as other places in her beautiful homeland.
She has come to admire certain stark realities of American culture: the ease in which Americans move from city to city to enhance their careers, and the way the American people deal with the labor market, which tends to result in lower unemployment than among the labor force in other countries. She also admires the number of women who have high-level careers. There are many more professional women in American than there are in Europe.
If she could change one thing about the American culture, what would that be? She wishes Americans would discover the passion and importance of history. Understanding what has happened in history is an important guide toward understanding what the future might hold. It’s really in the best interest of the American people to know and understand the history of their culture. Understanding the past is what will determine the future of America.