C. Anthony Martignetti
C. Anthony Martignetti, PhD, 1948–2015, was a writer and psychotherapist from Lexington, Massachusetts.
He received an interdisciplinary doctorate in psychology and theology from Boston University, published numerous professional articles and authored a chapter in the psychotherapy book Unlocking the Emotional Brain (Routledge, 2012).
Anthony founded the Biscuit Box Theater Company and Souled Out Artists writers group, who collectively have been performing shows in the Boston suburbs since 2002. His first collection of memoirs, Lunatic Heroes: Memories, Lies and Reflections, includes a foreword by Amanda Palmer, and is endorsed by Neil Gaiman, Donald Ray Pollock, Jack Kornfield and others. His second and last collection of memoirs is entitled Beloved Demons: Confessions of an Unquiet Mind, and includes an introduction by Neil Gaiman.
Listen to unpublished audio stories and more at camstories.net.
"Remembering author C. Anthony Martignetti" by Victor D. Infante, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
He received an interdisciplinary doctorate in psychology and theology from Boston University, published numerous professional articles and authored a chapter in the psychotherapy book Unlocking the Emotional Brain (Routledge, 2012).
Anthony founded the Biscuit Box Theater Company and Souled Out Artists writers group, who collectively have been performing shows in the Boston suburbs since 2002. His first collection of memoirs, Lunatic Heroes: Memories, Lies and Reflections, includes a foreword by Amanda Palmer, and is endorsed by Neil Gaiman, Donald Ray Pollock, Jack Kornfield and others. His second and last collection of memoirs is entitled Beloved Demons: Confessions of an Unquiet Mind, and includes an introduction by Neil Gaiman.
Listen to unpublished audio stories and more at camstories.net.
"Remembering author C. Anthony Martignetti" by Victor D. Infante, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Books by C. Athony Martignetti
Lunatic Heroes: Memories, Lies and Reflections
Dark, comic, raw, disturbing, and often redemptive, these tales take us from the 1950s to the present, along with a repeating cast of heroes and lunatics. These characters span the breadth and the depths of human qualities and capacities. The same person, in one story, may materialize as a hero and a god, and in another, as a lunatic and a demon. While the author roughs up the people in his stories with the hand of terror, he simultaneously views them with the eyes of love. Martignetti spares no one, and to his credit, particularly not himself. For one who confesses so much fear, he is fearlessly self-revealing. After reading this collection, you will come to know these characters, and the author, intimately. Not that you’d necessarily want to, it’s just the way things will turn out.
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Endorsements, Reviews, and Coverage
In Lunatic Heroes, C. Anthony Martignetti craftily melds memoir and fiction into thoroughly readable and brutally honest stories about his efforts to get at the real truth about life and family and everything in-between. I eagerly await his next book!”
—Donald Ray Pollock, author of Knockemstiff and The Devil All the Time
“A powerful piece of writing and of inner observation and, of course, redemption. Thoughtfully described, heartbreakingly honest, Anthony Martignetti tears open his own life to show the birth pangs and blessings of compassion.”
—Jack Kornfield, PhD, author of The Wise Heart
“An honest-to-goodness regional treasure . . . A glowering emotional pool, an emotional resonance and vulnerability that makes each pang and heartbreak detailed come alive.”
—Victor D. Infante, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
"These stories are really, really fucking good."
—Amanda Palmer, musician, founder of The Dresden Dolls and Grand Theft Orchestra
[From the Introduction to Lunatic Heroes]
In Lunatic Heroes, C. Anthony Martignetti craftily melds memoir and fiction into thoroughly readable and brutally honest stories about his efforts to get at the real truth about life and family and everything in-between. I eagerly await his next book!”
—Donald Ray Pollock, author of Knockemstiff and The Devil All the Time
“A powerful piece of writing and of inner observation and, of course, redemption. Thoughtfully described, heartbreakingly honest, Anthony Martignetti tears open his own life to show the birth pangs and blessings of compassion.”
—Jack Kornfield, PhD, author of The Wise Heart
“An honest-to-goodness regional treasure . . . A glowering emotional pool, an emotional resonance and vulnerability that makes each pang and heartbreak detailed come alive.”
—Victor D. Infante, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
"These stories are really, really fucking good."
—Amanda Palmer, musician, founder of The Dresden Dolls and Grand Theft Orchestra
[From the Introduction to Lunatic Heroes]
Beloved Demons: Confessions of an Unquiet Mind
In his follow-up to Lunatic Heroes, Martignetti sheds all defenses to reveal the viscera of a mind shaped by the dark and confusing forces of his childhood. This collection of memoirs and essays focuses mainly on Martignetti’s adult years, and features the pivotal characters of his ever-entertaining personal narrative. From the cascade of memories and emotions triggered by an accidental butterfly killing in “Cocoon Talk,” to the homicidal impulses prompted by a visit to his boyhood home in “Sign,” from the heartbreaking to the hilarious musings inspired by beloved pets in “Mochajava” and “Dog,” and throughout the uncensored sexcapades of “Mad,” “The Wild,” and “Feast of the Hungry Ghost,” Martignetti’s colloquial, humorous, and intimate style will keep you riveted, crack you open, enthrall and embrace you with an honesty normally reserved for not even the closest of friends.
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Endorsements, Reviews, and Coverage
To delightful effect, Anthony Martignetti manages to be both unsavory and sweet in Beloved Demons, a fitting follow-up to the excellent Lunatic Heroes, a memoir that kept us reading in the bathtub long after the water went cold. I am a fan.”
—Mark Shanahan, Boston Globe
“Anthony's art is here, in these pages, waiting for you, as fresh, as sharp, as painful a hundred years from now . . . These pages are gifts, from Anthony to you . . . from someone who has walked into the darkness and now stands in the light.”
—Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods, Good Omens, and Coraline
[From the Introduction to Beloved Demons]
“Martignetti's writing is a true gem . . . [Beloved Demons] is, in many ways, even a bit more compelling than its predecessor. . . . It's an unabashed good thing that Martignetti's [voice] has emerged . . . There's something about it that feels like home.”
—Victor D. Infante, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
"Looking for a New England: C. Anthony Martignetti, Jack McCarthy and a place's voice"
To delightful effect, Anthony Martignetti manages to be both unsavory and sweet in Beloved Demons, a fitting follow-up to the excellent Lunatic Heroes, a memoir that kept us reading in the bathtub long after the water went cold. I am a fan.”
—Mark Shanahan, Boston Globe
“Anthony's art is here, in these pages, waiting for you, as fresh, as sharp, as painful a hundred years from now . . . These pages are gifts, from Anthony to you . . . from someone who has walked into the darkness and now stands in the light.”
—Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods, Good Omens, and Coraline
[From the Introduction to Beloved Demons]
“Martignetti's writing is a true gem . . . [Beloved Demons] is, in many ways, even a bit more compelling than its predecessor. . . . It's an unabashed good thing that Martignetti's [voice] has emerged . . . There's something about it that feels like home.”
—Victor D. Infante, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
"Looking for a New England: C. Anthony Martignetti, Jack McCarthy and a place's voice"