L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MAY 2, 2024 www.italoamericano.org 28 L'Italo-Americano " I was a small-town kid who loved poet- r y : " t h i s i s h o w G i a n M a r i a A n n o v i describes himself, thinking back to his beginnings and to his first poems. Born in 1978 in Scan- diano, a small town in the hills of Emilia, Annovi is now among the semifinalists for the Strega Poetry Prize, Italy's most important liter- ary award. A career that took off in 1998 when, with a small pub- lisher, he debuted with his first collection, Denkm, fol- lowed by five others, until Discomparse, published by N i n o A r a g n o E d i t o r e i n 2023. It was the latter that caught the attention of the Premio Strega jury, along with 11 other words, selected among 144 candidates. "This collection brings together writings from a fairly long period. I don't write much and I tend to rewrite a lot. I'm not that prolific," Annovi e x p l a i n s . T h e p o e t h a s a degree in Philosophy from B o l o g n a , a d o c t o r a t e i n I t a l i a n S t u d i e s f r o m Columbia University in New York, and has been living in Los Angeles for eleven years, where he teaches Italian lit- erature at the University of Southern California (USC). How did your debut in poetry come about? I s t a r t e d w r i t i n g v e r y early, and by the age of 20, I attempted to circulate some of my poems. We're talking about the pre-internet era when people still sent letters. At one point, I decided to send them to what I thought was the most important poet, Andrea Zanzotto, who had recently published a reissue of "Galateo in Bosco." I still remember with great excite- m e n t w h e n I r e c e i v e d h i s p h o n e c a l l . H e d i d s o m e minor editing to my collec- tion and came out with the title for a poem I had dedi- cated to him. I recall him saying, "Here, as a title, I would put a nice asterisk, as it captures the idea of the unpronounceable evil you're discussing." What style does your poetry have? Conceptual, reasoning. Typically, my texts are part of a series, and each series is like a narrative, a kind of s t o r y , w h i c h c a n r e v o l v e around an idea or an actual tale. So, the individual text has a relative value; it works in this system, which I call a series. It's a type of poetry between experimentation and a sort of contemporary lyricism, and it questions the centrality of the subject. Some of your poems h a v e b e e n t r a n s l a t e d into English, Spanish, G e r m a n , a n d F r e n c h and included in numer- o u s a n t h o l o g i e s . H o w faithful can a translation be in another language? Poetic translation is the most challenging because keeping both form and con- tent is nearly impossible, you must necessarily sacri- f i c e s o m e t h i n g . W h a t ' s important to me is to convey the essence of the poem, to r e a c h i n t r a n s l a t i o n t h e e f f e c t t h e a u t h o r a i m s t o reach in the original lan- guage. For this reason, I'm not opposed to modifying the texts. For instance, in m y b i l i n g u a l c o l l e c t i o n 'Kamikaze and Other People' from 2010, the original texts and my English translations are significantly different. T h e y ' r e s o d i s t i n c t t h a t I refrain from calling them 'versions' in the traditional sense. This distinction per- tains to the verse, akin to an animal's cry, expressing a need, and at times, pain or suffering. This emphasizes the importance of conveying the essence of expression o v e r a d h e r i n g s t r i c t l y t o form. What subjects do you teach at USC? I teach courses in Italian literature, cinema, and cul- t u r e , a s w e l l a s g r a d u a t e courses in comparative liter- ature, especially media stud- ies or translation studies. I've focused extensively on e x p e r i m e n t a l p o e t s l i k e A m e l i a R o s s e l l i , A n d r e a Z a n z o t t o , a n d A n t o n i o Porta, all in the avant-garde area. In the last 15 years, I've also worked extensively on Pier Paolo Pasolini, who is not only a poet but also a multimedia artist. Among my most recent scholarly publications, is "Pier Paolo P a s o l i n i : P e r f o r m i n g A u t h o r s h i p " ( C o l u m b i a University Press, 2017), for which I received the Flaiano International Prize and the MLA Howard R. Marraro Prize for Italian Studies. What projects are you currently working on? I'm working on a second book on Pier Paolo Pasolini and have a book in progress on Nanni Balestrini, who was a writer, a poet, and one of the main figures of the Italian neo-avant-garde. On June 12, I'll be flying to New Y o r k b e c a u s e C I M A , t h e Center for Italian Modern Art, is hosting an exhibition on him, and I've been invit- ed as a keynote speaker. W h a t o t h e r a u t h o r s have you been involved with? Last year, on the occasion o f C a l v i n o ' s c e n t e n a r y , I organized, in collaboration with USC Dornsife and the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, "Six Memos for the Present 1923-2023," a lecture series that offered an interdisciplinary perspective on Italo Calvino's legacy. Several scholars and artists joined the event, including Gian Maria Tosatti, who rep- r e s e n t e d I t a l y a t t h e Biennale Pavilion two years ago. We also held an event with the novelist and poet Andrea Bajani, who gave a l e c t u r e o n C a l v i n o ' s l a n - guage. What period is Italian literature going through in the USA? The interest in Italian cul- ture in America is almost a f o r m o f f e t i s h i s m , i n t h e sense that everything Italian carries an aura of prestige a n d b e a u t y , w h i c h , o f course, is a stereotype. That said, people here generally know t h e m o r e c o m m e r c i a l authors, as in the case of F e r r a n t e . I n a c a d e m i a , Italian studies, like all disci- plines dealing with national cultures and languages in particular, are in a state of crisis, not only in America but also in Europe. Italian d e p a r t m e n t s a b r o a d a r e struggling, but this is a gen- eral problem related to our society, which doesn't value r e a d i n g a t a l l , n o t e v e n thoughtful, deliberate, slow reading. Today's values are different, more related to the speed of technology than to the depth of poetry. SILVIA NITTOLI Annovi interacts with the public during a talk (Photo courtesy of Gian Maria Annovi) A chat with poet and Strega Prize semi finalist Gian Maria Annovi LOS ANGELES ITALIAN COMMUNITY

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