Italics

writing, translating, self-translating, and performing Italian poetry in the U.S. today

Italics brings together poets, translators, and publishers to discuss and share their work, perspectives, and experiences on contemporary Italian poetry in the U.S. This one-day event will foster encounters centered around the intersection of Italian poetry and New York City, providing a unique opportunity for participants to engage with one another and explore the complexities and richness of Italian poetry.

Participants will engage with a wide range of topics, including the role of Italian poetry in the American literary landscape and the challenges and rewards of translating Italian poetry into English. Fostering valuable and productive exchanges between poets, translators, and scholars from diverse fields and perspectives, Italics is intended as a creative space of encounter for voices that are often silenced both in Italy and the U.S. due to their origin, gender, or sexual orientation. The event will also provide a platform for endangered languages, such as Italian Southern dialects. We are grateful and humbled by the generosity of many high-profile poets, translators, and publishers who have agreed to participate in this initiative.

We are especially enthusiastic to welcome undergraduate and graduate students from across the many universities that populate the intellectual landscape of our city, as well as members of the broader New York community, to participate in the event. We firmly believe that Italics will enrich the intellectual and cultural life of our city, fostering a significant cultural exchange between Italy and the U.S.

Program 

Please register in advance: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/614225363597

10:00 am Welcome

10:30 am         
What is not Lost in Translation: on Translating Italian Poetry into English
Poetry reading and dialogue with

John Taylor and Franca Mancinelli
Translations from A un’ora di sonno da qui (2018) and Tutti gli occhi che ho aperto (2020)

Maria Borio
Translations from Trasparenza (2019)

Jonathan Galassi
Unfinished Translations: A new English translation of Eugenio Montale

11:45 am Coffee break

12:00 pm 
Queering Italian

Dora Malech, Gabriella Fee, and Giovanna Christina Vivinetto
Translations from Dolore Minimo (2018)

Johanna Bishop and Giovanni Lovisetto
Translations from Scavi Urbani (2021)

1:15 pm Lunch for speakers

2:30 pm
What is not Lost in Translation: on Translating Italian Poetry into English

The Poetics of Dialects

Nino Provenzano
Selected poems in Sicilian

Martina Botti
Assunta Finiguerra: English translations from Lucanian

Poetry reading and dialogue with

Olivia Sears
Translations from Ardengo Soffici's Simultaneità e chimismi lirici (1915) and Mariangela Gualtieri's Quando non morivo (2019)

Todd Portnowitz
Readings from Go Tell it To the Emperor: The Selected Poems of Pierluigi Cappello (2019) and Methods by Lorenzo Carlucci (forthcoming)

Patricio Ferrari
Self-translations from Mud, vol. I of the Elsehere multilingual trilogy (forthcoming)

4:15 pm Coffee break

4:30 pm
Living Poetry
 Reading with the poets and translators who responded to the call for poets
Arianna Valocchi, Andrea Tisano, Sebastiano Belleggia, Lisa Di Battista, Linda Caracciolo Borra, Salvatore Riolo

5:30 pm
Final Remarks