Bronx native pays homage to Pelham Bay with book
BY JASON COHEN
Twenty-fi ve years ago Patricia
Dunn began writing a book loosely
based on her life growing up in Pelham
Bay. In November, the adult novel
was fi nally released to the public.
“Last Stop on the 6,” follows antiwar
activist Angela Campanosi back
home to her Italian American family
in the Bronx to prepare for her brother
Jimmy’s wedding. Now, 10 years later,
she fi nds that the groom has disappeared,
leaving behind only a cryptic
note and his rotating collection of plastic
patron saints on his nightstand.
Angela’s asthmatic mother insists
on keeping Jimmy’s fi ancée in
the dark. Her father, three years sober,
goes on a bender. Angela’s exboyfriend
has taken over running the
family exterminating business, and
her stepfather just wants to feed everyone
— even vegetarian Angela — some
of his meat gravy.
Dunn, 57, spoke with the Bronx
Times about the novel and the process
she went through to write it.
“If you’re not going to tell your
story who is?” she said. “Everybody
can create and write. You just have to
be able to sit down and do it.”
Dunn fi rst fell in love with pen and
paper as a child. Her teachers saw her
talent for writing early on, as Dunn
had a poem published in the P.S. 71
newsletter while in fi fth grade.
She started the school newspaper
at Lehman High School and attended
Barnard College for two years before
moving to Los Angeles where she became
an activist and hippie.
With no money, she and a couple
friends drove cross country to California
in three days. In between getting
arrested at protests where she fl aunted
her activism, Dunn also wrote for L.A.
Weekly until 1986, when she decided to
join her friend to build houses in Nicaragua.
“I said, ‘I want to be a journalist,
this will be a good thing,’” she said.
This time she did not go without
money. She went on the syndicated
game show, “Headline Chasers,”
hosted by Wink Martindale, which
constructed puzzles about news and
current events. She won $14,000.
“I was broke, my glasses had broken
and I had to borrow my friends’
glasses so I could read the cue cards,”
Dunn said.
However, a week before they were
supposed to leave the country, her
friend backed out of the trip leaving
Dunn to go alone. So, as the Marxist
Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction
Government in Nicaragua
were fi ghting the U.S.-backed rebel
group, Contras, Dunn spent a summer
building homes in the country. As she
saw reporters from TV stations covering
the fi ghting, she felt compelled
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, D 28 EC. 17-23, 2021 BTR
Pelham Bay native Patricia Dunn, whose book, “Last Stop on the 6,” offi cially debuted last
month. Photo courtesy Patricia Dunn
to to focus on her writing when back
stateside.
After a summer as an expatriate,
she returned to L.A. briefl y, but soon
returned home to New York and began
studying at Sarah Lawrence College in
Bronxville. While obtaining her master’s
in Fine Arts, she started to write
a book about a child in the ’70s that
eventually grew into a book that took
place in the ’90s. According to Dunn,
she used her family as inspiration for
the novel, but quickly understood it
was way too close to a family story.
“I realized why it didn’t work,”
Dunn said. “I was writing too much of
the truth and to get to the real truth I
had to fi ctionalize more.”
The 25-year process was an emotional
journey she would not have
been able to handle without her husband
Alan and a group of friends who
supported her. Dunn’s writing has appeared
in The Village Voice, The Nation,
LA Weekly and on the website
Salon. She was also a senior director
of the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence
College and is co-founder of The
Joe Papaleo Writers Workshop in Cetera,
Italy.
“You don’t do it (write a book)
alone,” Dunn said. “Books don’t happen
by themselves. Stories really matter.
This is about a working class family.
You don’t get a lot of those stories
out there.”
TO ADVERTISE CALL 718-260-4593
FAMILY COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF THE BRONX
NOTICE OF INQUEST
Docket No. NN-9568-70/20
In the Matter of
SPRATELY CHILDREN
A Child (ren) Under 18 Years of Age
Alleged to be Neglected By
KEVIN SPRATELY
Respondent(s)
TO: KEVIN SPRATELY
LINK IN- (Microsoft TEAMS)
https://notify.nycourts.gov/meet/ag3waa
DIAL IN- (929) 346-7209 dial-in code 226988904#
PLEASE CALL OR LINK IN ON DATE AND TIME STATED BELOW.
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the above-named child is alleged to be neglected pursuant to
Section 1012 of Article 10 of the Family Court Act.
PLEASE VIRTUALLY APPEAR IN PART 17, ON JANUARY 5, 2022 at 11:00AM
and at 2:00PM of the BRONX FAMILY COURT located at 900 Sheridan Avenue, Bronx,
New York, proceedings will be forward on INQUEST to determine:
(X) Whether the above-named child is neglected pursuant to Article 10 of the Family
Court Act.
(X) Whether having found said child to be neglected they shall be placed with the
Commissioner of Social Services for a period not to exceed twelve months.
BE ADVISED that the Court has authority to proceed even if you do not appear. Said
authority is found in Section 1042 on the Family Court Act. The court will proceed on
INQUEST on the date listed above.
Dated: 9/14/2021
IMAN,AKBAR . ESQ.
Special Assistant Corporation Counsel
Attorney for the Commissioner of the Administration for Children’s Services
900 Sheridan Avenue - 6th Floor
Bronx, New York 10451
Tel: # (646) 941-3806
/ag3waa
/ag3waa