NYU’s 2017 ‘The Season’

NYU Florence’s scenic Villa La Pietra (via Bolognese 120) will be home to the 13th edition of The Season; a summer celebration of collaborative and creative minds. The picturesque Tuscan landscape, from now until August, will host artists, musicians, poets, actors, and intellectuals as they work together and alongside one another, crossing disciplines and sharing inspiration as they present their work in front of Italian and American audiences.  All events have free admission.

Literary events are featured, such as Writers Reading on June 6 at 6 pm, where internationally celebrated fiction writers and poets will read from their own works. Visitors of Villa La Pietra can listen to Mark Bibbins, author of three poetry books including Sky Lounge, which received a 2004 Lambda Literary Award, and fiction writer Maaza Mengiste, whose debut novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze, was chosen as one of the 10 best contemporary African books by The Guardian.

A world premier of La Scolta by composer Roberto Scarcella Perino will be performed on June 7 at 7 pm. Perino, whose music has been commissioned and recorded by notable ensembles throughout Europe and the world including the Orchestra della Toscana, has enlisted the help of women’s choir SolEnsemble. The all female vocal ensemble includes musicians from all over Italy, who has performed in many prestigious venues since their debut in 2011.

Preceding the concert will be a poetry reading by Gian Maria Annovi, a writer and professor who has most recently lectured at USC, and has studied around the world from Barcelona to Columbia University in NY. Columbia Press will soon publish his newest book Pier Paolo Pasolini: Performing Authorship.

Celebrations continue with two installments of The Writers’ Season – La Stagione degli Scrittori on June 8 and 9,  Curated by writer and NYU lecturer Alessandro Raveggi, the inauguration will feature both dialogues and readings by contemporary American and Italian writers.

The first event will begin at 6 pm with a discussion mediated by literary critic Raoul Bruni with poets Mark Bibbins and Guido Mazzoni. Currently a professor of literary criticism at the University of Siena, Mazzoni has published numerous books, including Teoria del Romanzo that was translated into English by the Harvard University Press in 2017.

That same evening, a discussion with fiction writers Alexander Chee and Igiaba Scego will be led by writer and translator Edoardo Rialti, who specializies in fantasy and sci-fi narratives. Alexander Chee is the author of the series of novels Edinburgh, and most recently The Queen of the Night. His essays have also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Slate, and NPR.

Another guest, Igiaba Scego, is an Italian novelist and journalist born to Somali parents in Rome, who escaped Somalia and after the coup d’etàt in her country. Her novel La Mia Casa é Dove Sono won the Premio Mondello in 2011.

The following evening, The Writers Season is back at 6 pm with poets Vivian Lamarque, whose most recent collection Madre d’Inverno was published in 2016, and Catherine Barnett, a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship who has penned titles such as Into Spheres Such Holes are Pierced. At the helm of their discussion will be Diego Bertelli, who has most recently published with Silvia Rocchi the graphic novel I Giorni del Vino e Delle Rose.

The final fiction speakers will be Maaza Mengiste, whose second novel The Shadow King will be published soon, and Gianluigi Ricuperati, the founder and director of the Institute of Production of Wonder. He has collaborated with international magazines such as Volume, Vogue, and Repubblica.  (tessa lucia debole)