Nicholas M. Rinaldi (April 2, 1934 – May 27, 2020) was an American poet and novelist. Life Rinaldi earned a doctorate from Fordham University. He was the author of four novels and three collections of poetry. His poems and fiction won numerous awards, and he was honored as the 2007 Artist of the Year by the Fairfield Arts Council. He taught courses in literature and creative writing at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. He lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with his wife Jackie, a literary critic. Rinaldi had four children. He died from complications of COVID-19 on May 27, 2020, aged 86, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Connecticut. Bibliography Poetry collections The Resurrection of the Snails (1977, J F Blair, ) We Have Lost Our Fathers (1982, University Press of Florida, ) The Luftwaffe in Chaos (1985 Negative Capability Press, ) Novels Bridge Fall Down (1985) — (St Martin's Press, ) The Jukebox Queen of Malta (1999) — (Bantam, ) Between Two Rivers (2004) — (HarperCollins, ) The Remarkable Courtship of General Tom Thumb (2015) - (Scribner, ) References External links Fairfield University Profile www.nicholasrinaldi.net Author's website NPR's Jon Kalish interview with Nicholas Rinaldi 1934 births 2020 deaths American poets of Italian descent 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Fordham University alumni Fairfield University faculty Writers from Bridgeport, Connecticut Writers from Brooklyn 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets American male poets 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) Novelists from Connecticut Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Connecticut