Welcome to a new edition of the Famous Interviews with Joe Dimino series. On this episode, we talk with Chicago-based writer and storyteller Rebecca Chamian Ribaudo about her debut novel, Crossing Division Street, coming September 26, 2026, along with her life, career, creative inspiration, and the stories that shaped her as a writer.
At the heart of Crossing Division Street is a powerful question: What happens when personal principles collide with family heritage?
Spanning four generations and two timelines, the novel explores loyalty, betrayal, redemption, inheritance, identity, family, and the complicated ways history continues to shape the present.
But beneath the fictional story is a largely overlooked chapter of Chicago history—the intertwined experiences of Italian immigrants, Black American migrants, and the generations that followed in a changing mixed-race neighborhood once known as Little Sicily, Little Hell, and later Cabrini-Green.
Rebecca brings those worlds together through a story designed to make readers think about race, identity, heritage, immigration, assimilation, family loyalty, cultural memory, and what it means to inherit both the strengths and contradictions of previous generations.
While fiction has always been a passion, Rebecca's professional career has centered on brand development, storytelling, communications, and writing for organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to nonprofits.
She has also remained active in organizations and initiatives supporting freedom of expression, civil liberties, intellectual freedom, women's freedoms around the world, and the Harvard alumni community.
In this conversation, we explore the inspiration behind Crossing Division Street, Chicago's layered history, Italian-American identity, Black migration, family heritage, generational conflict, storytelling, writing a debut novel, and the complicated American story that emerges when different communities live, struggle, grow, and change side by side.
Crossing Division Street ultimately asks readers to wrestle with one of America's oldest—and still deeply relevant—questions: How do we honor where we came from while deciding who we want to become?
It's a fascinating story about family, Chicago, immigration, race, heritage, identity, and the complicated inheritance of American history.
Enjoy this story and interview.
More Rebecca Chamian Ribaudo
Rebecca Chamian Ribaudo on LinkedIn
Crossing Division Street on Amazon
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