by Jack Zipes I never expected to meet Gianni Rodari, and unfortunately I never did meet him. Nevertheless, he is a real force in my life, a life force, as are many other people whom I have encountered and who have compelled me to rethink the purpose of my life and work and to alter … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.40: Jack Zipes: Encounters with Gianni Rodari and His Grammar of Fantasy
by Karen Whittle Translating philosophy is no easy task. It is a balancing act in which the translator has to weigh up every single word in order to convey precisely what the author means to say. Take the title of one of the first books I translated: La Cura del Mondo (author, Elena Pulcini), which … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.36: Walking the Philosophical Tightrope
by Stiliana Milkova Rousseva In the wake of Elena Ferrante’s global popularity, it has become somewhat of a trend for mainstream publications to “introduce” or “discover” other Italian women writers in English translation. This trend arises partly from readers’ curiosity and thirst for new voices and partly from critics’ and publishers’ intent to capitalize on … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.34: Natalia Ginzburg and Italian Women Writers in Translation
by Oonagh Stransky A recovered gem from the Italian postcolonial literary canon, this heartrending and kaleidoscopic work of creative non-fiction by Erminia Dell’Oro was originally published in 1991 by Einaudi. Twelve-year-old Sellass undertakes the dangerous journey to Massawa in search of a better life, going on to become a water carrier. Carlo musters up the … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.33: Abandonment: An Eritrean-Italian Story
by Stiliana Milkova Rousseva In April 2023, the PEN America Translation Committee’s Manifesto on the state of literary translation in America called on editors, reviewers, and review publications to acknowledge the translator’s agency in the creation of a literary text. In other words, the Manifesto called for combatting the prejudices against translation and translators in … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.29: Reading in Translation: Shaping a Culture of Reviewing Italian Literature in Translation
by Antonella Lettieri Maria Grazia Calandrone was born in Milan in 1964, following her mother’s affair with an older man. A few years earlier, Lucia – that is, Maria Grazia’s biological mother – had been forced by her own father to marry a notoriously violent and often drunk man from her village in a rural … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.27: Maria Grazia Calandrone’s Your Little Matter
Author interview by Lisa Mullenneaux Yvette Samnick was born in Okala, Cameroon, in 1985 of a polygamous father, who had four wives. She earned a Master’s degree in Political Science and International Affairs from the University of Calabria in 2016 and in 2019 published her first book, Perché ti amo (Pelligrini, Cosenza). In 2024 Edizione E/O (Rome) launched her … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.26: “Born a Rebel” Is a Cry for Gender Justice
by Wendell Ricketts In 2009, the mononymous Italian singer-songwriter known as Povia came within a hair’s breadth of winning that year’s Sanremo contest, the annual “festival of Italian song,” a much-celebrated competition named for the coastal town in Liguria where it takes place. Sanremo is sort of a cross between The Lawrence Welk Show and … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.25: The Two Lucas
by Elena Borelli Giovanni Pascoli (1855–1912) is celebrated as a pioneer of modern Italian poetry, and has been hailed by Seamus Heaney as “one of the greatest poets of all times”. Reflecting the spirit of late 19th-century Italy, his works are influenced by French Symbolism and Decadentism, while also drawing from Italy’s rich classical tradition. … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.24: Convivial Poems by Giovanni Pascoli and the Podcast “An Ancient Language for a Modern Soul”
by Scott Belluz “The Americans dreaming of Italy and the Italians dreaming of America have finished their aperitifs by now.” Masneri, Michele. Paradiso (S. Belluz, Trans). Adelphi, 2024. I chuckled when I read this line from Michele Masneri’s latest novel, in which he describes the scene at an outdoor café where his protagonist Federico, a … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.22: Translation as Travel Escapism: A Cautionary Tale
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 