Frances Mayes

Frances Mayes is a poet, memoirist, novelist, and food writer whose work often moves between the American South and Italy. Pasta Veloce, published by Abrams in 2023, was written with cookbook editor Susan Wyler and photographed by Steven Rothfeld. Its one hundred recipes focus on pasta dishes designed for efficient preparation while retaining regional ingredients and techniques. The collaboration pairs Mayes’s descriptions of Italian place and domestic life with Wyler’s editorial and culinary experience. Mayes is widely known for Under the Tuscan Sun and its related memoirs, along with The Tuscan Sun Cookbook, A Year in the World, Women in Sunlight, and other books. She and her husband divide their time between North Carolina and Tuscany. Pasta Veloce extends her long engagement with Italian food without repeating the structure of her travel memoirs, using concise recipes and practical timing as the organizing principle for the volume.