#ItalianLitMonth n.33: Abandonment: An Eritrean-Italian Story

Posted on by Leah Janeczko

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

#ItalianLitMonth n.29: Reading in Translation: Shaping a Culture of Reviewing Italian Literature in Translation

Posted on by Leah Janeczko

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

#ItalianLitMonth n.27: Maria Grazia Calandrone’s Your Little Matter

Posted on by Leah Janeczko

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

#ItalianLitMonth n.26: “Born a Rebel” Is a Cry for Gender Justice

Posted on by Leah Janeczko

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

#ItalianLitMonth n.25: The Two Lucas

Posted on by Leah Janeczko

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

#ItalianLitMonth n.24: Convivial Poems by Giovanni Pascoli and the Podcast “An Ancient Language for a Modern Soul”

Posted on by Leah Janeczko

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”

#ItalianLitMonth n.22: Translation as Travel Escapism: A Cautionary Tale

Posted on by Leah Janeczko

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

#ItalianLitMonth n.20: newitalianbooks.it: Your Portal to the World of Italian Publishing

Posted on by Leah Janeczko

by Paolo Grossi newitalianbooks.it is the web portal dedicated to the promotion of Italian books worldwide, comparable to similar European websites such as the German litrix.de and new-books-in-german.com, the French booksfromfrance.fr, the Spanish newspanishbooks.com, the Dutch letterfonds.nl, etc.  newitalianbooks.it was born in 2020, on my initiative, in a bilingual, Italian-English edition, thanks to the support … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.20: newitalianbooks.it: Your Portal to the World of Italian Publishing

#ItalianLitMonth n.19: My White Whale: Translating Daniele Del Giudice

Posted on by Leah Janeczko

by Anne Milano Appel I first came upon Daniele Del Giudice in a bookstore window in Rome, while waiting for a bus on Via Vittorio Emanuele. In the window was a copy of his Staccando l'ombra da terra and I went in and bought it. As I read it, I got a sense that this … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.19: My White Whale: Translating Daniele Del Giudice

#ItalianLitMonth n.14: The Nature of Reality and the Human Condition in 1950s Rural Italy, in Paolo Volponi’s The World Machine

Posted on by Leah Janeczko

by Richard Dixon The World Machine is a vivid novelistic portrayal of rural life in postwar Italy. Its narrator, a small-time farmer, is one of life’s misfits, a young man who generally manages to play his cards wrongly. He is the keeper of a great truth: that people are machines built by other beings who … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.14: The Nature of Reality and the Human Condition in 1950s Rural Italy, in Paolo Volponi’s The World Machine