Della's Story

After careers in technology and math education, Chicagoan Della Leavitt immersed herself within the vibrant Midwestern literary community to learn the art of writing fiction. In her debut historical novel, Vivian’s Decision, Della began by turning to family lore, imagining her Russian Jewish immigrant grandparents’ lives alongside their children’s desires and disappointments as they strove to assimilate and abandon Chicago’s Maxwell Street and multi-ethnic West Side neighborhoods.

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In the early 1970s, when author Della Leavitt, a first-generation college graduate, encountered blatant female job discrimination, she joined the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union, sharing this feminist vision of programs aimed to transform women’s personal, professional and political lives. Many years later, as the novel Vivian’s Decision took shape, Della wove the 1956-era pressures Vivian felt to become the perfect wife and mother against her dreams for an independent identity. This tension became the heart of the story. Vivian’s Decision is not only Vivian and Mel Jacobson’s family saga, the book explores constraints that women of various ethnicities faced throughout the 20th century. Now, amid the rise of punishing laws restricting reproductive options, these issues are again all-too-relevant and timely.

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Della lives in Chicago with her spouse of several decades. Their son, daughter-in-law and granddaughters live nearby.

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See Della in the news or at her upcoming events.

Reach Della by emailing della.leavitt@gmail.com.