Her mother was a war orphan of Polish and Russian Jewish descent who worked as a seamstress and dress designer.

She won a scholarship to study World Drama at the well known Speech and Theatre Department of The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at CUA, Washington, D.C.

She was awarded a scholarship to The Catholic University of America by The National Players, where she completed a Master of Fine Arts in World Drama in 1977.

The couple had a daughter, singer songwriter, Thea D. Kearney, and moved to New York City, where Richard became technical director and designer at the George Gershwin Theatre, Brooklyn College.

Subsequently, Gioseffi edited On Prejudice; A Global Perspective (Anchor/Doubleday: NY, 1993), which was awarded a Plougshares Peace Foundation grant as was her later anthology Women on War.

[9] Gioseffi published four more collections of poetry, two novels, and a volume of short fiction, including Blood Autumn: Autunno di sangue, a bilingual edition of new and selected poems.