Dialogues and readings with contemporary American and Italian writers, two concerts with performative poetry and Italian songwriting. Villa La Pietra as an open villa and garden for contemporary literature. (English / Italian with translation).
Featured Biographies
Heidi Julavits
AUTHOR
Heidi Julavits is an American author and co-editor of The Believer magazine. She has been published in The Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 2, Esquire, Story, Zoetrope All-Story, and McSweeney’s Quarterly. Her novels include The Mineral Palace (2000), The Effect of Living Backwards (2003), The Uses of Enchantment (2006), and The Vanishers (2012).
Eileen Myles
AUTHOR
Eileen Myles (poetry faculty) was born in Boston (1949) and moved to New York in 1974 to be a poet. Snowflake/different streets (poems, 2012) is the latest of her 18 books. Inferno (a poet’s novel) came out in 2010, and is now available on i-Tunes in her own voice. For The Importance of Being Iceland/Travel Essays in Art she received a Warhol/Creative Capital grant. In 2010 the Poetry Society of America awarded Myles the Shelley Prize. She’s a 2012 Guggenheim fellow and in 2014 she won a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award in Poetry. She lives in New York.
Riccardo Donati
AUTHOR
Riccado Donati is a teacher and essayist. He published numerous contributions on literature and culture of Italy and Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; his most recent volumes include I veleni delle coscienze. Letture novecentesche del secolo dei Lumi (Bulzoni, 2010), Le ragioni di un pessimista. Bernard Mandeville e la cultura dei Lumi (ETS, 2011), Nella palpebra interna. Percorsi novecenteschi tra poesia e arti della visione (Le Lettere, 2014). In 2013, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei named him the Giuseppe Borgia Award for his scientific work related to the field of poetry.
Chris Kraus
AUTHOR
Chris Kraus is the author of four novels, most recently Summer of Hate, and two books of art and cultural criticism. Described by the New York Observer as “the art world’s favorite novelist,” a conference on her writing was held this year in London at Royal College of Art. Spanish and German translations of her novels I Love Dick, Torpor and Summer of Hate are forthcoming in 2014. During the 1980s she worked at the St. Marks Poetry Project and studied acting with Ruth Maleczech. She is a co-editor of Semiotexte, a contributing editor to Los Angeles Review of Books, and Professor of Writing at European Graduate School.
Christian Raimo
AUTHOR
Christian Raimo was born, raised and lives in Rome. He studied philosphy with Marco Maria Olivetti. He has participated in serveral (meteoric but fundamental) Roman literary reviews: Liberatura, Elliot-narrazioni, Accattone – Cronache romane, Il maleppeggio – Storie di lavori. He translated Charles Bukowski and David Foster for minimum fax, and the novel in verse The golden gate by Vikram Seth, together with Luca Dresda and Veronica Raimo for Fandango. He has published two books of short stories with minimum fax: Latte (2001) and Dov’eri tu quando le stelle del mattino gioivano in coro? (2004). Along with Francesco Pacifico, Nicola Lagioia and Francesco Longo – under the collective pseudonym Babette Factory- he published the novel 2005 dopo Cristo (Einaudi Stile Libero, 2005). He has also written a children’s book titled La solita storia di animali? (Mup, 2006) illustrated with the collective Serpe in seno. He is the editor of minima&maralia. In 2012 he published Il peso della grazia (Supercoralli) by Einaudi.
Gabriele Merlini
AUTHOR
Gabriele Merlini oversaw the production of the anthology Selezione naturale in 2013. Storie di premi letterari and the novel Válečky o guida sentimentale alla Mitteleuropa , were both published with Effequ Editore. His articles, stories, and reports have appeared in anthologies, literary reviews, magazines, and newspapers including Scrittori Precari , Riot Van , Re: vista sulla Letteratura e le Arti , Bibliotici – Storie di libri e deviazioni , Nuovo Corriere , e-Polis , Europa e Europa Orientale su Arcoiris, East Side Report , Termometro Politico , and others. He is a member of Firenze delle Letterature (Special Award Fiesole 2012), founded multi-author blogs Slipperypond , Eastkoast , and collaborated for cultural events such as Caro vecchio neon, editions of TUS, Cafè Mitteleuropa, literary presentations and meetings.
Elisa Biagini
AUTHOR
Elisa Biagini lives in Florence, Italy after having taught and studied in the U.S. for several years (Ph.D. Rutgers University). Her poems have been published in several Italian and American reviews and anthologies. She has published 6 poetry collections- some biligual- such as L’Ospite, (Einaudi, 2004), Fiato. parole per musica (2006), Nel Bosco (Einaudi, 2007), The guest in the wood (Chelsea editions, 2013 – 2014 Best Translated Book Award) and Da una crepa (Einaudi, 2014). Her poems have been translated into English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Croatian, Japanese, Slovak, Arabic, Serbian, Chinese and Russian and she has been invited to important poetry festivals such as: Stanza-Scotland’s International Poetry Festival, St.Andrews, Scotland; Dubai International Poetry Festival, UAE; poesiefestivalberlin, Berlin; International Writers Workshop, Hong Kong, Struga Poetry evenings, Struga, Macedonia, Poetry Parnassus, London, England. She has translated several contemporary American poets for reviews, anthologies and complete collections (Nuovi Poeti Americani Einaudi, 2006) and she teaches Creative Writing-Poetry, Travel Writing, Literature and Art History in Italy and abroad. Along with her work as a poet, Elisa has presented several installation projects in relevant art spaces and has collaborated with musicians, artists and choreographers. www.elisabiagini.it.