by Leah Janeczko Dear reader, October has been quite a month! San Girolamo – St. Jerome, patron saint of translators – has accompanied us down a long, scenic, winding path through the Italian literary landscape on a discovery of great Italian books in English translation. Long, not because it has lasted thirty-one days but because … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.50: One Hundred Cantos
by Michael Palma Dante’s contemporary fortunes have been especially various, I believe, in the United States and Great Britain, where translations have appeared, and continue to appear, at a remarkable rate. About a decade ago someone observed that the first ten years of the new century had seen the publication of at least ten new … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.49: A New Translation of Dante: The Music I Kept Hearing in My Head
by Leah Janeczko Three years ago, three friends in India who loved reading – Harsha, Giri and Anil, who had been friends for 25 years and studied mechanical engineering together – started a podcast dedicated to novels and short stories in their native language of Telugu. They called the program Harshaneeyam, a play on words … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.48: The Harshaneeyam Podcast and Its Italian Literature in Translation Playlist
by Michael F. Moore Martina Franca, in Puglia, is the hometown of the writer Mario Desiati, and the setting of almost all of his novels. The town, and indeed the region as a whole, is so ubiquitous in his latest, the Strega Prize-winning Spatriati, as to become one of the book’s main characters, alongside the … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.47: Reclaiming Puglia in Mario Desiati’s Spatriati
by Jeanne Bonner Jamie Richards has translated the works of some of the most celebrated writers working in Italy today, including Igiaba Scego and Viola di Grado. She won the 2024 National Translation Award in Prose for her translation The Hunger of Women by Marosia Castaldi, which was published by And Other Stories. Her translation was … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.46: Q&A with Translator Jamie Richards Conducted by Jeanne Bonner
by Stephen Sartarelli I have always believed—at least when translating prose—that a literary translator should be like the arbiter or umpire of a sporting event: the less noticed the better. Whenever readers and critics praise, for example, the stylistic elegance of an author I happen to have translated, I take this as a compliment to … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.44: On Translating Camilleri: Notes from the Purer Linguistic Sphere of Translation
by Howard Curtis Gianfranco Calligarich’s Last Summer in the City was first published in Italy in 1973, when its author, like the book’s protagonist, was a young journalist in Rome: this was his first novel. Despite initial success and critical acclaim, it was then forgotten for several decades. It is only in the last ten … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.43: Gianfranco Calligarich’s Last Summer in the City
by Lori Hetherington Italian author Filippo Iannarone began investing in his writing ten years ago. His first book, a historical mystery entitled Il Complotto Toscanini, was published traditionally in 2018 by Piemme and republished in paperback the following year. It was well received by critics and identified as “among the five best books with potential … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.42: An Interview with Italian ‘Authorpreneur’ Filippo Iannarone
by Richard Dixon Translation is a solitary pursuit. Our closest work companion is our dictionary. Then, if we’re lucky, we find a group of virtual colleagues to whom we can turn for help. We translate toward our mother tongue from the language we know best though many of us have few opportunities to meet those … Continue reading #ItalianLitMonth n.41: Vice Versa: Translators Across the Language Divide
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
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 