Maria Luisa Vezzali

Maria Luisa Vezzali was born in 1964 in Bologna (Italy), where she lives. She earned her Master’s degree in History of Greek Language in 1987 with a dissertation on Hellenistic poetry. After ten years as a journalist and editor for different publishing houses, she began to teach Italian and Latin Literature in a high school. Her research interests are specifically women’s writing and problems of poetic translation, on which she occasionally holds refresher courses and lectures in high schools and universities.

As a poet, she published L’altra eternità (Edizioni del Laboratorio, Modena 1987), “Eleusi marina”, in Poesia contemporanea. Terzo quaderno italiano (Guerini e Associati, Milan 1992), Dieci nell’uno (Eidos, Venice 2004, sculptures and drawings by Mirta Carroli), Lineamadre (Donzelli, Rome 2007, Anterem/Montano Award 2007), Forme implicite (Allemandi, Turin 2011, jewels and drawings by Mirta Carroli), Tutto questo (Puntoacapo editrice, Pasturana AL 2018, don Luigi Di Liegro Award 2020). Some of her poems are translated into English, Spanish, French, German, Swedish, Romanian and Arabic. Her work has appeared in many magazines and anthologies.

As translator, she is the Italian voice of the distinguished American poet Adrienne Rich (Cartografie del silenzio, Crocetti, Milan 2020² and La guida nel labirinto, Crocetti, Milan 2021², University of Bologna Translation Award 2011) and of the French-Hungarian poet Lorand Gaspar (Conoscenza della luce, Donzelli, Rome 2006). Her translations from French and English  of other contemporary women-poets such as Carole Darricarrère, Imtiaz Dharker, Marlene Dumas, Shira Erlichman, Elaine Feinstein, Denice Frohman, Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Jade Lascelles, Karyna McGlynn, Polly Atkin, Stephanie Sy-Quia were published in a broad  range of literary journals. She has collaborated with Pina Piccolo in the translation of texts by Michelle Cliff (March 2017) and in the editing of poems by African (July 2020) and Indian (March 2021) female authors for the magazine “Le Voci della Luna”.

She is a member of feminist Association Orlando and of the translators group WiT (Women in Translation), which translated Audre Lorde, D’amore e di lotta (Le Lettere, Florence 2018).

www.marialuisavezzali.com