Erri De Luca

Erri De Luca

Erri De Luca (Naples 1950) is an Italian novelist, translator and poet. He has been recognized by critic Giorgio De Rienzo of Corriere della Sera as "the writer of the decade".[1]

Biography

Erri De Luca's original first name was Enrico (Henry), an hommage to his grandmother, who had American nationality, but defined by him as an "accident."

Upon completing high school in 1968 Erri De Luca joined the radical left-wing movement Lotta Continua. After the organization's disbandment he worked as a blue collar at the Fiat factory in Turin and at the Catania airport. He also was a truck driver and a mason, working in job sites in Italy, France and Africa. He rode relief convoys in Yugoslavia during the war between 1993 and 1999.

He is self-taught in several languages including Ancient Hebrew and Yiddish.

He appeared in a cameo role (of a mechanic) in the film L'isola, by Costanza Quadriglio.

Erri De Luca's first debut as screenwriter and leading actor in the short film Di là del vetro (Beyond the Glass), presented at The Venice Film Festival 2011. Italy, World Premiere. "A night-time conversation between a man and his mother and a trip down memory lane through the phantoms of life. Erri De Luca opens the door to his house, transporting us into the universe of the past."

Again, with "The Nightshift Belongs to the Stars" he is screenwriter and actor, directed by Edoardo Ponti. This "little gem" has been in the short list for the Academy Awards 2013, and won the Tribeca Film Festival 2013. In the 2013 Erri De Luca is the author of the documentary film "Trees that Walk", and in the 2014 he writes and interprets the musical biography, "A Musical Imprinting".

De Luca is a passionate mountain climber. A reclusive character, he currently lives in the countryside of Rome.

Literature

Although he never stopped writing since he was 20, his first book is published in 1989, Non ora, non qui (Not now, not here). Many more books followed, best sellers in Italy, France and Israel, his work being translated and published in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, USA, Brazil, Poland, Norway, Danmark, Romania, Greece, Lithuania, and more. He has himself translated several books of the Bible into Italian like Exodus, Jonah, Ecclesiastes, Ruth, and explored various aspects of Judaism, as a non-believer.

In France, he received the France Culture Prize in 1994 for Aceto, arcobaleno, the Laure Bataillon Award in 2002 for Tre cavalli and, also in 2002, the Fémina Étranger for Montedidio, translated in English as God's Mountain. In 2010 he was given the German international literary Petrarca-Preis. He has been a member of the jury at the Cannes Festival in 2003. In 2013, he received the European Prize for Literature.

Erri De Luca writes regularly for various newspapers (La Repubblica, Il Corriere della Sera Il Mattino, Avvenire), and other magazines.

Quotes

Works

Translations by the Author

References

  1. ↑ "Erri de Luca at the Institute". Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles. Retrieved 2010-01-27.

External links