Luigi Fontanella

Luigi Fontanella (born 1943 Salerno, Italy) is a poet, critic, translator, playwright, and novelist.

Life

He graduated from the Sapienza University of Rome (Laurea in Lettere), and Harvard University (Ph.D.) He has taught at Columbia University, Princeton University, and Wellesley College.^[1] He is currently a Professor of Italian at Stony Brook University.^[2]

He is the founder of IPA (Italian Poetry in America), and the editor of Gradiva and Gradiva Publications.^[3]

Fontanella lives on Long Island, NY and Florence, Italy. He is the author of 15 collections of poetry, 9 books of criticism, and 4 books of narrative. His most recent collections are Land of Time (New York: Chelsea Editions 2006, Edited by Irene Marchegiani, Introduction by Dante Della Terza); L'angelo della neve (Milano: Mondadori, Almanacco dello Specchio, 2009); Bertang(Bergamo: Moretti & Vitali, 2012, Prata Prize & I Murazzi Prize); Disunita Ombra(Milan: Archinto, RCS, 2013).

Awards

• Fulbright Fellow at Princeton University, 1976-1978.
• Prize for Translation by the “Ministero dei Beni Culturali”, Gradiva Publications.
• 1998 Orazio Caputo Prize.
• 1993 Ragusa Prize.
• 2000 Bordighera Poetry Prize.
• Circe Sabaudia Prize, Minturnae Prize, S.Andrea Prize.
• 2008 Città di Marineo.
• 2008 Laurentum Prize.

Works

Literary Criticism

• I campi magnetici di A.-Breton-P. Soupault (translation, introduction and notes) Rome: Newton Compton. 1979.
• Il Surrealismo Italiano. Rome: Bulzoni. 1983. American edition Harvard University. 1981.
• Tozzi in America. Rome: Bulzoni. 1986. .
• La Parola Aleatoria. Florence: Ed. Le Lettere. 1992 ISBN 978-88-7166-079-0.
• Il filo verde di Ugo Betti. Camerino: Ed. Mierma. 1993.
• Storia di Bontempelli. Ravenna: Longo Editore. 1997.
• La Parola Transfuga: Scrittori Italiani Espatriati in America. Firenze: Cadmo, 2003 ISBN 978-88-7923-282-1.
• Pasolini rilegge Pasolini Milan: Archinto. 2005.
• Giuseppe Berto: Thirty Years Later Venice: Marsilio. 2009 ISBN 978-88-317-9903-4.
• "Paolo Volponi L'inedito Di New York" Torino: Aragno Editore, 2012 ISBN 978-88-8419-565-4.
• "Migrating Words. Italian Writers in the United States" New York: Bordighera Press, 2012 ISBN 978-1-59954-041-2.

Poetry

• La vita trasparente, 1973-1977. Rebellato. 1978. 
• Simulazione di reato. Manduria: Lacaita. 1979.
• Stella Saturnina. Roma: Ed. Il Ventaglio. 1989.
• Round Trip. Udine: Campanotto. 1991.
• Ceres. Formia: Caramanica Editore, 1996 ISBN 978-88-86261-36-4.
• Terra del Tempo. Bologna: Book Editore, 2000 ISBN 978-88-7232-357-1
• The Transparent Life and Other Poems. Translator Michael Palma. Gradiva Publications. 2000. ISBN 978-1-892021-03-8. 
• Angels of Youth. Translators: C. Lettieri and I. Marchegiani Jones. Riverside, Calif.: Xenos Books. 2001.
• Azul. Milan: Archinto Ed., 2001. ISBN 978-88-7768-388-5.
• Land of Time: Selected Poems 1972-2003. Chelsea Editions. 2006. ISBN 978-0-9725271-3-2. 
• L'azzurra memora. Poesie 1970-2005 Bergamo-Milan: Moretti & Vitali. 2007. Città di Marineo prize, Laurentum Prize. ISBN 978-88-7186-339-9.
• Oblivion Note by Giovanni Raboni. Milano: Archinto. 2008.
• "Bertgang" [Introduction by Giancarlo Pontiggia, Afterword by Carla Stroppa], Bergamo: Moretti & Vitali, 2012. Prata Prize, I Murazzi Prize. ISBN 978-88-7186-510-2.
• "Disunita Ombra" [Introduction by Sebestiano Aglieco, Note by Paolo Lagazzi] Milan: Archinto, 2013. ISBN 978-88-7768-611-4.

Fiction

• Milestone e altre storie Siena-Rome: Il Messapo. 1983.
• Hot Dog. Roma: Bulzoni. 1986.  English edition Soleil. 1998 ISBN 0-921831-52-8.
• Controfigura Venezia: Marsilio. 2009. ISBN 978-88-317-9887-7.

Reviews

...his most recent poetry is like a rare hothouse flower blooming in Fontanella's garden, laid out like a golf course, with surprising bridges between pleasure and reflection which, in the end, enliven both author and readers. Fontanella is essentially the transcriber of unique lyric moments in a poetic corpus that is neither too fertile (abundant) nor too facile (redundant), yet shines with a contemporary relevance that carries it well beyond its cycles of conception and completion. (Giose Rimanelli)^[3]

There's great freedom of forms and intonations in Luigi Fontanella's poetry. He doesn't take a strong formal stand; his poetry entertains moments of nearly proselike colloquial narrative along with moments of powerful lyrical tension. There's a movement of extremes, from powerful tonality to near atonality, and I like this a great deal; it's a stance that very effectively catches the spirit that makes work in poetry possible nowadays. (Giovanni Raboni) ^[4]

References