shittysburg, Pidgin edizioni, 2025

Shittysburg is the third volume of the new series Stormo, selected by Mattia

Grigolo (author of Gente alla Buona, Pulviscolo, etc.) for Pidgin Edizioni. It's my first novella published in Italy.

It all begins with a stolen dildo. Actually, no—it all begins when her ex ends up in jail for beating her. Or maybe not; maybe it started even earlier than that. Anyway, she has just returned to Shittysburg after a psychiatric hospitalization and discovers that she’s been robbed of her most precious possessions. From this surreal theft, she ends up investigating the lives of others, which kept moving on during her hospitalization, and her own past, which instead has remained frozen in trauma, as she tries to piece her life back together. With an ironic, ferocious, and brutally honest voice, Rachele Salvini tells a story of ruin and rebirth, set in an American small town where everything reeks of smoke, beer, and disillusionment.

What is being said about Shittysburg:  

"Shittysburg, la vita dopo la violenza di genere," review by Sonia Vaccaro for Let's Book 

Review by Marilena Votta for Genius, Scuola di Scrittura Creativa

"Il terzo Stormo di Pidgin: Shittysburg di Rachele Salvini," review by David Valentini for Critica Letteraria 

“There’s a mountain lion in Agra.” Zelda receives an alarmed phone call from her former daughter-in-law, Allison: in their small town in Oklahoma, an animal long believed to have disappeared has been sighted. 

The call reminds Zelda of the horrific murder of three Girl Scouts years earlier—allegedly at the hands of a Native American said to be able to transform into a mountain lion. But for Zelda, those words awaken other memories, equally steeped in danger. Waiting for her, at the edge of the darkness of memory, is her husband Tom, now dead. Their infatuation devolved into a lifeless marriage marked by violence: on Zelda, but also on the animals he hunts, fascinating creatures to dominate simply for the pleasure of being able to do so. Zelda's thoughts then turn to Gareth, the once deeply loved son who is now nothing but a shell of resentment and prejudice, so like—too much like—his father. And then her granddaughter Grace, a child who has already grown a tough outer shell that Zelda can't penetrate. 

Zelda finds herself restless, discovers herself trapped in a passivity that, now that she's older, no longer fits her. Zelda, little by little, discovers herself.

What is being said about Pelli:  

"Il gesto di Zelda per riappropriarsi di sé," review by Gianni Montieri for Huffington Post 

"Ascoltando la belva nel bosco," review by Ilaria Padovan for Limina Rivista 

Review by Marilena Votta for Genius, Scuola di Scrittura Creativa

Interview by Giudizia Casale for Giuditta Legge

Review by Ilaria Petrarca for Decoder News

"Pelli: donne in cerca di libertà nel romanzo di Rachele Salvini," review by Chiara Spaziano for L'Armadillo Furioso

Review by Antonietta Mirra for L'Amica dei Libri 

Interview by La McMusa for Sogni Americani

"Dal Regno Unito all'Oklahoma: 'Pelli,' il secondo romanzo di Rachele Salvini," review by David Valentini for Critica Letteraria

Interview by Alessandro Campaiola for  Mar Dei Sargassi

Oklahoma Bestiary was the runner-up for the 2023 Quarterly West Chapbook Award. It's a collection of five stories about Oklahoma wild animals and its even wilder people. Author Jess Arndt selected Oklahoma Bestiary and this is what they said: 

“In these five crackling stories, bodies--both real and grief-imagined--come apart under the pulverizing pressures of small-town Oklahoman life. While violence-smeared and peopled by characters who are at best, inchoate, and at worst, architects of their own destruction, Oklahoma Bestiary’s inner panes feel lit with sensitivity, opening towards material feelings that are both tenderizing and tender. A roadrunner, despite its apparent stamina, can only run for so long. Says the story’s weary troubadour: “I often think about myself at the end of high school, about that roadrunner, a second before exploding, his head low, no direction, just a bunch of young, strong muscles that made him keep going… .” Part of the power in Rachele Salvini’s rendering is how mutually she treats the bodies on her pages. Cockroaches, opossums, a chimerical and ill-fated gator, flies—all feel distinctly alive, as in: failing, wounded, and ultimately desirous of something as yet ungraspable, but more, like us.” 

What is being said about Oklahoma Bestiary: 

“These energetic, constantly shifting stories do more than surprise.  They break your understanding and rebuild it into something new and fresh and dazzling. OKLAHOMA BESTIARY is an amazing and enthralling read.” 

                       -- Fred Leebron, author of Six Figures

"The stories in Rachele Salvini's Oklahoma Bestiary offer a bewitching vision of Oklahoma and its strangeness, full of urgency, compassion, and written with a clarifying richness to detail. Rachele Salvini is a writer to keep an eye on. She's fantastic!"

-- Brandon Hobson, author of The Removed