by Leah Janeczko They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but if the cover boasts one of these six awards, it means that judges somewhere in the world have deemed the book shelfworthy. Though there are many other national and international literary and translation prizes celebrating Italian works, this is a good … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.45: Six Italian Literary and Translation Awards You Should Know About
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 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
