Former Marist Italy student honoured with the Elizabeth Holtze Creative Nonfiction Award

By Alice Adams

Please note: this article includes a discussion of sensitive themes, including violence against women.

“For the three months I studied abroad I saw enough art for three lifetimes. Paintings in the Belvedere Palace, statues in the Louvre, local sketches on the streets of Positano. Yet the one piece of art I remember the most was five minutes away from my apartment in Florence.“

— Alyssa Borelli, The Women of Sabine

For Marist’s students in Florence, education and achievement don’t end as soon as they return to Poughkeepsie. One former Florence student, Alyssa Borelli ‘24, has been recognized by the international English honor society Sigma Tau Delta for a piece she wrote based on her time in Florence, titled “The Women of Sabine.” The award-winning piece will be published in the 2025 edition of the society’s annual creative writing journal, the Sigma Tau Delta Rectangle. It will also take its place in the prestigious Library of Congress, meaning it will be preserved in a record of cultural significance and will be accessible to a wide audience for many years.

Borelli studied in Florence for one semester in 2022, and then continued to flourish back home, writing creatively, producing plays, and winning awards. The award was granted for a creative nonfiction piece written in Dr. Lea Graham’s Travel Writing Workshop at the Poughkeepsie campus, two semesters after her term in Florence. The piece explores her experience of surviving a sexual assault while abroad, then returning to Florence to be surrounded by the potent artistic context of the Renaissance and the myths that these artworks continue to tell in the present day. 

“How come no one stops to look at that art and realizes that those myths still play out today?”

— Alyssa Borelli, The Women of Sabine

For Alyssa Borelli, who graduated this past spring, ingrained in her perception of Florence’s artistic past is a recognition of the tradition of men’s dominance over women. In her award-winning piece, she considers this historical tendency and reflects it against her own experiences. While the award is certainly cause for celebration, the piece is rooted in difficult subject matter, creating a bittersweet sense in this recognition.

Dr. Graham said of the piece: “Alyssa wrote well of her time studying abroad in Florence. Her work is imagistic—making us feel like we are there with her. But also, she was able to connect the personal and academic experiences in an organic and thoughtful way. This is the mark of a mature writer (and person!) who combines the heart and the head, the experiential and cerebral in an engaging way. Also, Alyssa’s work ethic and motivation are excellent and her own. It was a joy to work with her!”

Borelli was encouraged to submit her piece by Dr. Graham, as well as Dr. Patricia Tarantello, the founder of Marist’s Sigma Tau Delta chapter, Alpha Mu Kappa. Borelli has been recognized for her writing several times while at Marist. She continuously published work in the campus’ art and literary magazine, Mosaic, and wrote four short plays that were featured in the Marist Theatre Guild’s John P. Anderson Playwrights Festival. Borelli hopes to pursue fiction writing in a professional capacity.

Giambologno’s sculpture Abduction of a Sabine Woman (in other translations known as The Rape of the Sabine), depicting the large-scale assault of the female neighbors of an early Rome. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

---

How did you begin as a writer? How did that become a part of your life?

Borelli: I love reading and I think every good writer is a good reader. In fifth grade, my friends started writing down stories and sharing them with the class. I never did that, but I did start writing my own little novels, and then I started writing more novels in high school; they were more of a journal for me because I like expressing my problems through made-up characters. I got to be a part of Graham’s travel writing class, and it forced me to write about myself.

What was your thought process when deciding to write this piece, and what was it like writing with such vulnerability?

Borelli: I didn’t want to bring up a sensitive topic if people weren’t comfortable with it, but Dr. Graham gave me the courage to write it and said it could be a healing process for me. I have to thank the girls in my workshop group because they were so understanding and supportive, and lifted me up while still giving me the writing critiques I needed. The experience itself was very therapeutic for me. It was difficult, but easy at the same time. I was very involved and connected with writing it, but editing the second draft let me disconnect and step back from it. I was allowed a chance to control my narrative, which I’m grateful to Dr. Graham for. Sometimes survivors feel a lack of control but this story, my feelings, my definition of what happened, no one can take that away. I didn’t expect the piece to get into the journals or to win an award, so it’s a little nerve-wracking for it to be recognized. But it’s good for people to see that you can take back that control.

What’s your advice for a young writer working to express something difficult through this creative outlet?

Borelli: Writing is a very powerful form of expression, and can be really helpful for people who’ve experienced what I’ve experienced – or anything else they’ve experienced – to write it out and process those feelings. It’s also helpful to have other people understand. Writing has the power to change perspectives or open minds. It’s my duty as a young aspiring writer to write about those things so other students or writers can reflect on it.

A lot of college students go through different forms of sexual assault. It’s an important topic that needs to be shared. Creatively, find people who will listen to you – some people may not want to for personal reasons, and that’s okay. Accept that and find the people who will lift you up.

Do you find that reading the works of others has helped you work through it yourself – have you found solace in what other people have written?

Borelli: Yeah, it is so important to share those stories. Sometimes they can be triggering, so know that going into what you’re reading, but it’s also important to feel all those emotions. I personally do like reading stories of people who can relate to me. It’s also important to read good self help books. There are a lot of resources and books out there, and those books have really helped me. My whole piece itself revolves around art from all different time periods, and I think creative expression is the best way to convey and interpret those feelings as someone who is healing.

How do you now perceive art? How has your relationship to like visual art changed?

Borelli: Going abroad is important; it did educate me about art. Always read the descriptions and find out what it is that you’re looking at. I have a lot of anger toward those older works of art, because they are just so pretty. They’re gorgeous. And I want to see messy stuff, you know? I like looking at messy self expression. Yeah, my whole perspective on art completely changed after going abroad – the Marist Italy program is amazing.

How do you now reflect on your time in Florence?

Borelli:  I had an amazing, amazing, amazing time in Florence. I am Italian, and I have family there, so I’ve always loved the culture, and I’ve always loved the place, and Marist has an insanely good program for it. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I did make a lot of mistakes. I felt like it was really important for me to be immersed in the entire abroad experience, but I think I put too much pressure on myself to do that, to go to certain places, go out to certain clubs to have certain experiences. Instead of focusing on that, I just remember the places, the beauty, that beautiful art; that’s what I want to remember, and that’s what I do remember. It was a great, wonderful time.

“If someone splashed enough soup on all the rapes of the National Gallery, would anyone pay attention?”

— Alyssa Borelli, The Women of Sabine

This interview has been edited for length and/or clarity.

Additional information by Lauren Lagasse ‘25 for the Marist College website. Photos courtesy of Alyssa Borelli.