Italian Poetry, As It Lurks on the Internet and in Small Presses

*Several of the poets from this week are being translated into English by Italica Press (based in New York).

*The University of Delaware Press published this collection of Contemporary Italian Poetry in 2007 (not much detailed info out there on it).

*Linh Dinh presents Seven Contemporary Italian Poets (very recent feature from January 2009). In addition to poems in translation, the profile also includes an interview with poet Gherardo Bortolotti that I thought was worth reading. It touches on how American culture influences Italian writing (he also mentions American writers who are held in high regard there) and on current literary movements in Italy (appropriately, the American movement of Flarf/sought poetry has made its way over there via the internet... thanks, K. Silem Mohammad).

*Italian Poetry Today: New Ways to Break the Line, by Gianluigi Simonetti

*Some Recent Italian Poems, by Geoffrey Brock

*Here's a good selection of bios of contemporary Italian poets.

*Finally, I think this is a pretty awesome resource for all of us - it's a database of poetry in translation. In addition to reading the poetry in English, it's interesting to see who's being translated where, and how widely.