Vanna Bonta

Vanna Bonta is an American writer, poet, and actress. She is best known as the author of Flight: A Quantum Fiction Novel (1996), the story of an amnesiac girl with no navel, and award-winning collections of poetry, as well as for her cameo role as Zed's queen in the fantasy movie The Beastmaster.

Biography
Family history
Bonta's maternal grandfather, Italian author Luigi Ugolini, befriended the Allied forces in World War II and was a political prisoner of Mussolini. Bonta's mother, a fine arts painter, and her father, a U.S. citizen from Kentucky who served as a military officer, met during WWII. Her mother learned English through correspondence she and her family kept with her father. The friendship developed into romance and ten years after the war they were married. Bonta's mother moved to the U.S. to start a family, and became a U.S. citizen.

Name
Vanna is pronounced Vahn' na. She was given her medieval Tuscan name, Vanna, by her grandfather, Luigi Ugolini, after the girl in Dante Alighieri's "La Vita Nuova".

Early life
Bonta was born in the U.S. but was taken to Florence, Italy six weeks after her birth when her family moved there. Bonta was baptized on the spot as the 14th century poet Dante Alighieri in Firenze at the Battistero di San Giovanni. After several years in Italy, her family traveled to Thailand, where her father was stationed with the American Embassy.

Bonta grew up in a bilingual household and became fluent in Italian and English at home. She learned Thai and French at the British missionary school where she started school in Bangkok, Thailand, where she spent formative grade school years with students of 43 nationalities. Her classmates were 40 percent Thai, only 6 percent American, and the rest from India, the Middle East, Korea, and some 30 other countries.

Bonta's literary life is rooted in her earliest memories of her grandfather in Florence, Italy who would routinely recite Dante and read classical poetry and fiction after lunch during her frequent and periodic stays in Florence, Italy. Ugolini would also write the preface to a first collection of Bonta's childhood poems published by the Don Bosco School in Thailand. Bonta still has her first rejection slip, received from a New York publisher to whom she submitted her poetry as a six-year-old. A poem Bonta wrote as a child and resident in Thailand to Queen Sirikit appears in the Bangkok Post. When Bonta was nine, her first collection of poetry with a preface written by her grandfather was published. Letters of author Pearl Buck show correspondence with Bonta who, as a 12 year-old girl, wrote Buck about living in the Orient, her novels and passion for poetry. At only age 11, Bonta wrote her first novel. She has since been awarded two literary medals in Italy, and has been published in several anthologies, including The Anthology of American Poetry, Best Loved Contemporary Poems, and The American Poetry Association Anthology.

Philosophical beliefs
Though known as not being a fanatic of science fiction or any one literary genre, Bonta's passionate interests in outer space (she is an advocate of space settlement and philanthropy to utilize resources and intelligence to uplift humanity), mechanics (she rebuilt a car engine), physics, and the human relationship to the cosmos appear as themes in the stories she has been writing since age 6. Her signature cosmic view transcends political and religious divisions.

Even though Bonta went to a Christian missionary school in the Orient, her schoolmates were Buddhists and Muslims from all nationalities. She wrote poems about and practiced the different religious rituals of her friends. At age 13, Bonta was quoted in the Columbia Gazette as saying, "I'm in love with the whole world."

Her global influences include studies of Buddhism, Catholicism, and other ancient and modern religions. Bonta reportedly won't belong to any religion that draws barriers between people and believes that "tears and laughter" are clues to what she calls the universal religion of the human heart.

Charitable work
Bonta has contributed to several charitable causes, including donating a performance of her works to a CD compilation of music and stories designed to cheer thousands of children confined to hospitals, and fostering two orphan elephants in Kenya. Bonta also supports ONE Campaign, World Food Programme (WFP), The Child Welfare League of America, The Humane Society of the United States, and Greenpeace.

Literary Work

Bonta has been credited for creating the literary genre quantum fiction, described as "fiction in which consciousness is factored as an element which affects reality." In November 1996, Bonta's novel Flight: A Quantum Fiction Novel was presented in Florence, Italy, by the Italian Minister of Culture in association with the Florentine Camerata of Poets, a committee established in the 15th century as part of the city government for poetic standards in poetry and Italian Literature. Flight is the story of Aira Flight, an amnesiac girl without a navel who experiences urban life on Earth as if for the first time. Among the panel of presenters of Bonta's literary work was Gabriella Fiori, Italian biographer of Simone Weil. Fiori, a professor of Arts and Philosophy who has taught at the University of Padua, described Flight as "genius," "revolutionary," and "a masterpiece." Flight has also received outstanding reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, the American Library Association, and other book review organizations.

Bonta's work has been translated into Japanese and Italian, and her poetry has won medals in Europe. Bonta's second collection of poetry, Shades of the World, was awarded an Italian cultural prize in 1987 when leading Italian poet Margherita Guidacci introduced Bonta as "an important discovery." At the Palazzo Vecchio awards ceremony, Guidacci described she was "overtaken by chills" when reading Vanna Bonta, the likes of which she had not experienced since discovering Sylvia Plath. Bonta is listed in the American Poetry Index

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry selected Vanna Bonta's story "Somewhen" for the first season development of Star Trek: The Next Generation series. (The Bible from the TV show is a cherished treasure in Bonta's library.) Roddenberry predicted that one day she would create her own worlds.

Bibliography

Books
# Flight: A Quantum Fiction Novel (1996) ISBN:; ISBN:
# Degrees: Thought Capsules (Poems and Micro Tales on Life, Death, Man, Woman, & Art) (1989) ISBN-13:
# Shades of the World (Poetry) (1985) ISBN
# Rewards of Passion, Sheer Poetry (1981) ASIN: B0006E51Z4

Anthologies & Publications
# Attenzione (Madison Ave, New York)
# The Washington Times
# The Anthology of American Poetry, 1983, Association of American Poetry
# Best Loved Contemporary Poems (World of Poetry)
# The American Poetry Association Anthology
# Lyrical Voices (Young Publications) Editor Lincoln B. Young

Nonfiction
# "The Impact of Space Activities Upon Society" (2005) (contributing author)
# "Space: what love's got to do with it" (2004)
# "Why Space Settlement" (contributing author from the Space Settlement Summit) (2003)
# "State of the Art" (2000)
# "What Is Quantum Fiction?"
# "The Sum of Days"
# "The Loving Hand Is Heaviest"
# "Gifts Have Ribbons, Not Strings"
# "In the Beginning Was..." (Collegiate INsider, 1992)
# "Bonta's Law" ( Malibu Times) , (1991)
# "Looking Life in the Eye"
# "How to Recognize Genius"
# "Poetry: Nucleus of All Arts"
# "Ordinary Holy Days" (The American Citizen, running Feature Column 1987 - 1992)

Short Stories & Screenplays
# Short Story: Mother Ship
# Television: "Somewhen" (for Star Trek: The Next Generation)

Film and Television

Bonta has broad experience in the television and film industries, though she is best known as Zed's queen in the fantasy favorite, The Beastmaster.

Upon moving to Hollywood in the early eighties, Bonta auditioned for a role in The Beastmaster and won the brief cameo of the hero's young queen mother, beloved by fans of the cult classic fantasy feature. She appeared in several films including Time Walker (1985) and Where Sleeping Dogs Lie (1992), but reportedly stayed focused on writing, voice acting, production, and publishing because of the "clown" status of Hollywood celebrity. Bonta also played roles in television episodes of CHiPs (1982) and Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1986). When initially in Hollywood, she was offered a starring role in Reform School Girls, which she turned down because she felt the movie was exploitative. She also auditioned for the starring role in Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, but backed out to devote time to her first love, writing.

As a voice actress, Bonta's voice acting credits in feature film and television include parts in animated films (e.g., Beauty and the Beast, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West), live action films (e.g., Demolition Man, The Core), and television (e.g., The Twilight Zone).

Bonta's songwriting skills won awards, but most of her musical contributions seem to be to philanthropic causes, exampled by the song and video What Goes Up (2005), which she produced and directed. As Bonta describes "What Goes Up", "The song What Goes Up was inspired as I was playing the piano and reminiscing about the SpaceShipOne launches I witnessed in the Mojave desert. It is an awesome thing to comprehend the magnitude of the fact that what a human being dreams and imagines can be realized. The power of that truth needs to be directed toward our creation of a future that is worthy of our human value and the word civilization.".

Filmography
# Kerd ma lui (a.k.a. Born to Fight) (2007) (voice: English version), as Mali
# Walk the Line (2006)
# The Game of Their Lives (a.k.a. The Miracle Match) (2005) (uncredited), as Italian Bride
# Revelations (2005) (mini-TV Series) (voice), as Vatican Researcher
# What Goes Up (2005), as Pianist - Zero G Flyer
# Something's Gotta Give (2003) (voice) (uncredited), as E.R. Nurse
# The Core (a.k.a Core)(2003) (voice) (uncredited)
# The Twilight Zone television series
## "Dead Man's Eyes" (2002) TV Episode (voice)
## "Time Lapse" (2002) TV Episode (voice)
# Armed and Innocent (1994) (TV) as Candy
# Demolition Man (1993) (voice), as Computer Voices
# Where Sleeping Dogs Lie (1992), as Serena's Secretary
# An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) (voice)
# Beauty and the Beast (1991) (voice)
# Scarecrow and Mrs. King television series
## "All the World's a Stage" (1986) TV Episode, as Lead Actress in Play
# My Wicked, Wicked Ways... The Legend of Errol Flynn (1985)
# Time Walker (a.k.a Being from Another Planet)(1982), as Student in Lab
# The Beastmaster (1982), as Zed's Wife
# CHiPs (a.k.a. CHiPs Patrol) (1 episode, 1982)
## Ice Cream Man (1982) TV Episode, as Secretary

(Screen Actors Guild listings: Hocus Pocus, Bedazzled, Gattaca, Maverick, Anna and the King, Village of the Damned, The Three Musketeers, Starship Troopers, The Lizzie McGuire Movie, The Omen, Mission Impossible 3, S1mOne, Just Married, Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, Children of Dune, The Order, What Dreams May Come, The Royal Princess Diaries 2, Back To the Future.)

Honors and Awards

* Florentine Camerata dei Poeti (for Shades of the World poetry collection)
* Literary silver medal for Poetry - Concorso Letterario Nazionale - La Donna Nel'Arte
* (3 songs, music and lyrics)
* American Song Festival (4 songs)

Life works

Publishing - Film
Bonta is known to divide her time between Los Angeles, the Midwest and world travel. The loss of her mother in 1997 reportedly created a reflective period for Bonta. She avoided interviews but continued writing and accepted select voice acting roles. In 2007, Bonta narrated the unabridged version of her first novel, Flight, for audio book.

Artist model
Vanna Bonta modeled for two of the greatest artists of the 20th century. She was a model of Woman for sculptor Frederick Hart's "Creation of Mankind" (Ex Nihilo) sculpture on the front entrance of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington D.C., which former president George Bush has described as combining "the permanence of stone and God." Bonta also sat for the legendary Florentine maestro Pietro Annigoni, portraitist of Queen Elizabeth and John F. Kennedy. He gave Bonta the portrait inscribed with a promise to sketch her every time she was in Florence.

Cultural
Bonta traveled to Africa for the solar eclipse in 2006. She has ridden camels in Egypt, elephants in Thailand, and fosters baby elephants in Kenya with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust run by Daphne Sheldrick.

Bonta is an advocate of human exploration and settlement of space. Bonta flew in zero gravity in September 2004.

Bonta invented the "2suit". The garment, designed to facilitate intimate relaxation and sex in space, was presented at the Space Frontier Foundation's NewSpace 2006 conference and made news worldwide.

A Lunar Lander, designed by BonNova for the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge in 2007, was named Lauryad, after the space ship in Bonta's Flight. The challenge offers a $2M prize for the winner. Bonta serves as a creative consultant on the design team. The spaceship was financed through an auction on eBay.

Quotes
* "I didn't have a Barbie doll, so I played with eternity."
* "Life is a canvas of many strokes, where shades from different palettes meet into a picture so concrete that some forget it is their own, and so become framed themselves."
* "Greed is the lack of confidence of one's own ability to create."
* "'Impossible' is not a scientific term."
* "How enlightened is wearing God like some do Versace?"
* "We can have a World War; I see absolutely no reason why we shouldn't have a World Party."
* "When we love, we are courageous; and courage has nothing to do with being fearless: it's about being willing to experience fear, even dread, to do what we must, without guarantee of outcome."
* "Humility is the ability to give up your pride and still retain your dignity."
* "Gifts have ribbons, not strings."
* "The greatest justice in life is to be who one is."
* "Where you see valid achievements or virtue being attacked, it's by someone viewing them as a mirror of their own inadequacy instead of an inspiring beacon for excellence."
* "Nature abhors a vacuum, but why do most people hasten to fill in the blanks with garbage?"

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