A conversation with Italian author Babas, a.k.a. Barbara Capponi, with Katherine Gregor about Katherine’s English translation of her book How to Train Your Human (HarperVia, 2024)
A book that is a must for cat lovers… or those not yet sufficiently evolved to appreciate, worship and obey cats.
How to Train Your Human: A Cat’s Guide
- by Babas (a.k.a. Barbara Capponi)
- Translated from the Italian by Katherine Gregor
- Original title: Come addomesticare un umano (2022)
- Illustrator: Andrea Ferolla
- 144 pages
- Publisher: HarperVia (2024)
- ISBN: 978006333648
- Treat your bookshelf to a taste of Italy! Order the book here.
Barbara Capponi, a.k.a. Babas (Milan, 1966), is a visual artist who moves within a very broad territory ranging from drawing to writing, sculpture to photography.
In her research, Retablos—small dioramas inspired by the Mexican tradition, which contain miniature three-dimensional scenes accompanied by a title—occupy an important space.
Before dedicating herself to art full time, she was art director and creative director at a big international advertising agency, where she created many successful campaigns and characters, including the Jim Henson chameleon, Carletto. Around that time, she also cooperated with several non-profit organizations, such as Amnesty International and Lipu, taking care of their communications. She worked on projects of an artistic nature too, including by collaborating with the Italian cult band Elio e le Storie Tese.
The relationship between man and nature, the link between the micro and macro cosmos, the psyche, the unknown, the beauty and ferocity of the world, and love are some of the central themes of her work, which she tries to address with a light hand, poetry, and humor.
Her book How to Train Your Human is being translated into eleven languages.
More at the author’s website here.
Katherine Gregor (Rome, 1965) is a writer of fiction, non-fiction and plays, as well as a literary translator from French and Italian. She was born in Rome, where she lived on and off for twelve years, spending six years also in France before moving to England in 1988, where she graduated from the University of Durham. She has also worked as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language, a press agent and an actors’ agent. She also blogs at Scribe Doll.
Italian Lit Month’s guest curator, Leah Janeczko, has been an Italian-to-English literary translator for over 25 years. From Chicago, she has lived in Milan since 1991. Follow her on social media @fromtheitalian and read more about her at leahjaneczko.com.
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 
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