Donna Leon
Novelist
American-born crime novelist and university professor. She became their for her Guido Brunetti series of detective novels.
She published her debut Brunetti novel, Death at La Fenice, in 1992.
She requested that, despite their Venice settings, none of her Brunetti novels be translated into Italian.
After leaving her native America, she taught literature in Italy at the University of Maryland's European branch.
She and fellow detective fiction author Sara Paretsky were both recipients of the Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger Award.