Presentation of
“Other Voices of Italy” (OVOI),
a translation series of books published
by Rutgers University Press (first release January 13, 2023)
Speakers
the editors
Eilis Kierans,
Alessandro Vettori,
Sandra Waters,
Micah Kleit, director of Rutgers University Press,
Christopher Rios-Sueverkruebbe, assistant editor at Rutgers University Press,
Prof. Gregory Pell of Hofstra University
Prof. Michelangelo La Luna of the University of Rhode Island
(translators of two OVOI books coming out later this year).
This roundtable presents a new series of books translated from Italian to English. The series is entitled “Other Voices of Italy: Italian and Transnational Texts in Translation” and proposes texts of any genre originally written in Italian. Its principal aim is to introduce new or past authors–who have until now been marginalized–to an English-speaking readership. The series will also highlight contemporary transnational authors, as well as writers who have never been translated or who are in need of a new/contemporary translation. The series further aims to increase the appreciation of translation as an art form that enhances the importance of cultural diversity.
Alessandro Vettori is Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at Rutgers, where he currently serves as Chair of the Department of Italian. His most recent monograph is Dante’s Prayerful Pilgrimage: Typologies of Prayer in Dante’s Comedy (Brill, 2019, Italian translation Edizioni Storia e Letteratura, 2021). Other publications are: Poets of Divine Love (Fordham University Press, 2004), Giuseppe Berto, La passione della scrittura (Marsilio Editore, 2013), and articles on Dante, Boccaccio, Francis of Assisi, Iacopone da Todi, Giuseppe Berto, Diego Fabbri, and Luigi Pirandello. At the moment his research involves the use of money and poverty in Dante and Franciscan thinkers of the 13th and 14th centuries. He is the co-editor of a new translation series, “Other Voices of Italy,” with Rutgers University Press and he is the editor of the journal of Italian Studies Italian Quarterly.
Sandra Waters received her PhD from Rutgers University with a dissertation on the figure of the narrator in the Italian historical novel. Her research interests include gender, trauma, and film theory; the historical novel; the collective author; and horror. Her recent publications include articles and chapters on Luther Blissett and Wu Ming, Dario Argento’s Mother Trilogy, Maria Rosa Cutrufelli’s The Woman Brigand, Paolo Sorrentino, and surveillance in contemporary American horror film. She is the managing editor of Italian Quarterly, co-edited Spaces and Places of Horror with Francesco Pascuzzi, and co-edits the Other Voices of Italy series for Rutgers University Press.
Michelangelo La Luna is Professor of Italian in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at University of Rhode Island since 2003. He is also the Director of the URI Italian International Engineering, Business, Computer Science, and Pharmaceutical Science Programs. He has a Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University (2001) and a Ph.D. in Albanian Language and Literature from University of Calabria (1997). Dr. La Luna has many years of experience in study abroad programs. Before directing the URI Summer Program in Italy (2005), he organized the first study abroad Italy programs for the DeRada Italian Institute (2001-2004) and for Harvad University (2002-2004). He is also a passionate researcher of Dante’s Divine Comedy, and of Luigi Capuana’s fairy tale La Reginotta (2020). As the Director of the book series SOPHIA, Dr. La Luna edited several books in honor of one of the best Italian writers, Dacia Maraini. He recently translated Carmine Abate’s masterpiece Il ballo tondo, which will be published with the title The Round Dance by Rutgers University Press.
Gregory Pell is Professor of Italian at Hofstra University (NY) where he currently serves as chair of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. His latest monograph, Davide Rondoni: Art in the Movement of Creation (FDU Press, 2017), explores the ekphrastic and ‘non-ekphrastic’ relationship between art and poetry in the works of Davide Rondoni, John Ashbery, Charles Wright, Mario Luzi, et al. He has recently collaborated on two tri-lingual (English, Spanish, Italian) volumes for Fabbri Editori: one a critical essays and introductions to selected cantos by Dante in honor of the 700th-anniversary of his death—L’orma di Dante (In the Footsteps of Dante), the other includes essays and commentary on Giuseppe Conte’s rhythmic translation of the Song of Songs. among his many translation projects, he is completing the English translation of the complete works of Neapolitan novelist Angelo Cannavacciuolo. The first of these works will be released with Rutgers University Press’s “Other Voices of Italy” series.
Eilis Kieransis a Ph.D. candidate in Italian Studies at Rutgers University where her research focuses on 20th century literature, film, queer studies, ecocriticism, and feminist food studies. She has published articles that analyze the work of Clara Sereni, Dacia Maraini, Grazia Deledda, Christian Petzold, and Italian American women writers. She is editor of the creative reviews section of Italian Quarterly and co-editor of the new series Other Voices of Italy. Eilis is passionate about experiential learning and has led students on educational trips around Italy, Argentina, and Ecuador.
Christopher C. Rios-Sueverkruebbe is an assistant editor at Rutgers University Press, where he oversees the Other Voices of Italy series and acquires in the fields of religious and Jewish studies. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame and worked at the University of Notre Dame Press before moving to Rutgers in 2022.
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