THE BOOK
.jpg)
Honorable Mention in Fiction Category
In 1905, nineteen-year-old Mimi Inglese contracts tuberculosis, ending her hopes of becoming an artist and of escaping the expectations placed on women of her class. Dependent on her male relatives for survival, she travels with her family to New York City after their estate in Sicily begins to collapse. But the New World offers no easy refuge.
The only surviving photograph of the "real" Mimi Inglese
In New York, Mimi is drawn into her father’s money-laundering scheme. When he is arrested, she begins counterfeiting five-dollar bills herself, determined to support her family and find a measure of control over her future. After her sister’s death, Mimi takes in her young nephew and sets aside her own ambitions to raise him. But as violence and uncertainty close in, she must find the strength to begin again—and make choices that will shape both their lives.
Seeds of the Pomegranate was inspired by a family secret: the author’s grandfather, as a boy, survived a tenement fire in 1922. That discovery launched a years-long journey through historical records—newspaper clippings, prison logs, and autopsy reports—to reconstruct a forgotten legacy and imagine the hidden lives of women navigating immigration, illness, and resistance.
​
Guided by the pre-modern version of the Persephone myth—in which the goddess eats the red fruit and chooses to reign in the underworld—Seeds of the Pomegranate is the story of a woman who dares to claim her power in a world that keeps trying to take it away.
_edited.jpg)
The olive groves of western Sicily, Ellis Island and tenement life
​In Seeds of the Pomegranate, the 1906 journey from Sicily to New York marks a turning point for Mimi and her family—once noble, now just names on a ship’s manifest. Traveling in second-class aboard the SS Sofia Hohenberg, they leave behind the palazzo, olive groves, sulfur mines, and fading titles. The crossing is difficult, thick with salt, coal smoke, and the shuffle of strangers. Near the Sargasso Sea, Mimi’s sketchbook was torn from her hands and lost to the waves. She stands at the rail, empty-handed, watching the city rise—chimneys, steeples, scaffolds against the sky. The wind smells of ash and iron. It is a passage—one of many she will face—as she steps into a life she must now shape.
BOOK LAUNCH EVENTS
Seeds of the Pomegranate Book Discussion:
Suzanne Samuels and Amy Catanian
At Historic Saranac Lake, Suzanne Uttaro Samuels spoke with Amy Catania about the themes of Seeds of the Pomegranate, exploring how illness shapes identity and how women claim agency in times of constraint.
Suzanne Uttaro Samuels in conversation with Lisa Montanaro, author of Everything We Thought Was True.
A heartfelt thank-you to everyone who joined the virtual launch of Seeds of the Pomegranate. I’m especially grateful to Lisa Montanaro for leading such a thoughtful and engaging conversation about the novel, its themes, and the journey to publication. Your questions, presence, and support made the event unforgettable — nearly 70 of you filled the screen, and I couldn’t be more appreciative.
ANTHOLOGIES
Feisty Deeds: Historical Fictions of Daring Women
is a powerful anthology of 23
stories featuring bold women who defy the expectations of their times, from the 1400s to the 1970s. These heroines face war, superstition, injustice, and domestic constraints with resilience and courage. Suzanne Uttaro Samuels contributes “The Orphans’ Wheel,” set in nineteenth-century Sicily, in which a young woman seeks the truth about a foundling child. Honored by the Coffee Pot Book Club and American Writing Awards, the collection showcases extraordinary stories of women making their mark across centuries.
Desert of Dreams
is the debut anthology from the Historical Novel Society North America, featuring 12 stories that uncover the hidden histories of Las Vegas. From pioneer days to the atomic age, the collection traces the city’s evolution through its outsiders, visionaries, and legends. Suzanne Uttaro Samuels and Sally Milliken contribute companion pieces about settler Helen Stewart and her sons in “Doorway to the Desert” and “Cowboy Justice.” With tales of Josephine Baker, the Beatles, and Cold War tensions, the book reveals Las Vegas as both mirage and crucible of American ambition.