Dialogues and readings with contemporary American and Italian Writers curated by Prof. Alessandro Raveggi, writer and NYU Florence professor, in collaboration with the Estate Fiorentina 2015, Comune di Firenze. (Second edition)
Featured Biographies
Mark Bibbins
Author
Mark Bibbins is the author of three books of poems: Sky Lounge (Graywolf Press), which received a 2004 Lambda Literary Award, The Dance of No Hard Feelings (Copper Canyon Press), and They Don’t Kill You Because They’re Hungry, They Kill You Because They’re Full (Copper Canyon), which was named one of the best poetry books of 2014 by Publishers Weekly magazine and a standout book by The Academy of American Poets. He has taught in the graduate writing programs of The New School, where he co-founded LIT magazine, and Columbia University, as well as at Purchase College and the 92nd Street Y. A recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship, Bibbins edits the poetry section of The Awl. His poems have appeared in such venues as The New Yorker, Poetry, The Paris Review, and four editions of The Best American Poetry. He lives in New York City.
Colson Whitehead
Author
Colson Whitehead is the author of five novels and two books of nonfiction. His most recent book is
Luca Baldoni
Author
After graduating in German and History at Trinity College, Dublin, Luca specialized at University College London in Italian poetry of the twentieth century with a doctoral thesis on Umberto Saba. He is currently Assistant Professor of Italian Studies at James Madison University (Florence Program). He deals with modern poetry and gay studies, and has published numerous essays and translations in this field in professional journals in Italy and abroad. Volumes of poetry: Sensi Diversi (2005 – Camaiore Award for a debut feature); Territori D’oltremare (2008 – Sandro Penna Award for an unpublished work). Translations: Christina Rossetti, Donne in Amore (2011); J. W. Goethe, Elegie Romane (2012). Edited: Le parole tra gli uomini: Antologia di poesia gay italiana dal Novecento al presente (2012), which has recently appeared in a Dutch version, De beste jeugd. Tweetalige bloemlezing van Italiaanse modern homoerotische Poezie (2014), co-edited with Gandolfo Cascio.
Rosaria Lo Russo
Author
Poet, translator, essayist, actress, she has published: Comedia (Milano, Bompiani, 1998), Penelope (Napoli, Edizioni d’if, 2003), Lo Dittatore Amore.Melologhi (Milano, Effigie, 2004, with an audio CD) and Io e Anne. Confessional poems (Napoli, d’if, 2010, with an audio CD), Nel nosocomio (Massa, Transeuropa, 2011), Crolli (Firenze, Le Lettere, 2012), Poema (1990-2000) Arezzo 2013. She has edited three volumes of translations of poems by Anne Sexton: Poesie d’amore (Firenze, Le Lettere, 1996), L’estrosa abbondanza (Milan, Crocetti, 1997, together with Antonello Satta Centanin and Edoardo Zuccato), Poesie su Dio (Firenze, Le Lettere, 2003). She has also edited poetry translations by Erica Jong: Miele e sangue (Milan, Bompiani, 2001) and along with Lucia Valori a work by Alfonsina Storni, Senza rimedio (Firenze, Le Lettere, 2011). As a reader and performer of texts from her writings or as an interpreter of contemporary poetry, she has collaborated, among others, with: Piera degli Esposti, Joseph Brodsky, Mario Luzi, Giorgio Caproni, Andrea Zanzotto, Nanni Balestrini, Friederike Mayröcker, Erica Jong , Wislawa Szymborska and the cultural programs of RAI. For RAI, she participated as a featured columnist (with a portion titled Dire la poesia, in which she did a poetry reading) on the TV show L’ombelico del mondo, created and directed by Nanni Balestrini, for RAI Educational 3.
Francesco Pacifico
Author
Francesco Pacifico is the author of The Story of my Purity (Farrar, Strout and Giroux, 2013). He has written for a number of Italian publications, as well as for Rolling Stone and GQ, and has translated into Italian the works of Henry Miller, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dave Eggers, Will Eisner, and more. He lives in Rome.