Dacia Maraini

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Dacia Maraini (born November 13, 1936 in Fiesole, Italy) is an Italian writer. She is the daughter of Topazia, an artist who belonged to an aristocractic Sicilian family (the Alliata di Salaparuta) and of Fosco Maraini, a Florentine ethnologist and mountaineer of mixed Ticinese, English and Polish background who wrote in particular on Tibet and Japan. Maraini's work focuses on women’s issues, and she has written numerous plays and novels. She has won awards for her work, among which the Formentor Prize forL'età del malessere (1963), the Premio Fregene for Isolina (1985), the Premio Campiello and book of the year award for La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa (1990) and the Premio Strega for Buio.

[edit] Life

When she was a child, Maraini's family moved to Japan in 1938 to escape Fascism. They were interred in a Japanese concentration camp from 1943 to 1947 for refusing to recognize the military government. After the war, the family returned to Italy and lived in Sicily with her mother’s family in the town of Bagheria, province of Palermo.

Not long after, her parents separated and her father moved to Rome where, some years later, at the age of eighteen, Maraini joined him.

She married Lucio Pozzi, a Milanese painter, but they separated after four years. She then became Alberto Moravia's companion, living with him from 1962 until 1983.

In 1966, Maraini, Moravia and Enzo Siciliano founded the del Porcospino (Porcupine) theatrical company which had as its mission the production of new Italian plays. They included her own La famiglia normale, Moravia’s L’intervista, Siciliano’s Tazza, and works by Carlo Emilio Gadda, Goffredo Parisi, Juan Rodolfo Wilcock and Tornabuoni.

In 1973, she helped to found the Teatro della Maddalena which was run by women only.

Maraini is a prolific and well-known writer who continues to produce works today.

[edit] Works

1962 - La vacanza: translated by Stuart Hood as The holiday : a novel (1966)

1963 - L'età del malessere (Formentor Prize): translated by Frances Frenaye as The age of discontent (also published as The age of malaise) (1963)

1973 - Memorie di una ladra: translated by Nina Rootes as Memoirs of a female thief (1973)
1974 - Donne mie (poetry)
1975 - Donna in guerra
1975 - Maria Stuarda (Mary Stuart - theater)
1978 - Mangiami pure (poetry): translated by Genni Donati Gunn as Devour me too (c.1987) ISBN 0-919349-89-7
1978 - Stravaganza
1985 - Isolina (Premio Fregene): translated by Siân Williams as Isolina (1993) ISBN 0-7206-0897-X
1990 - La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa: awarded Premio Campiello, book of the year award in Italy
1991 - Viaggiando con passo di volpe: awards: Mediterraneo, 1991, and Città delle penne, 1992
1991 - Veronica, meretrice e scrittora
1993 - Bagheria: translated by Dick Kitto and Elspeth Spottiswood as Bagheria (1994) ISBN 0-7206-0926-7
1994 - Voci: awards include: Napoli 1995, Sibilla Aleramo, 1995
1997 - Dolce per sé
1998 - Se amando troppo
1999 - Buio: awarded Premio Strega, 1999
2000 - Fare teatro (1966-2000) (collection of plays)
2004 - Colomba