Poetry Readings: Voices from Across the World

The celebrated international poetry event, ‘Distant Voices, Sister Voices,’ will be taking place in Florence in June and September this year. Now in its 21st edition, the annual festival will host a number of poetry readings, by poets both alive and dead, from around the world. Entrance is free but reservations are required at the following email: perchepoeti@gmail.com.

Opening the festival at Palazzo Medici-Riccardi (via Cavour 3) on June 6 at 5 pm will be the Indian poet and author, Arundhathi Subramaniam, who is currently based in Mumbai. With 13 books to her name, both in poetry and prose, has received significant recognition during her career, including the Raza Award for Poetry, the Zee Women’s Award for Literature and the Charles Wallace Visiting Arts and Homi Bhabha Fellowships. Her deep understanding of spirituality informs her poetry; as well as themes as travel, human connection and belonging. In a stirring essay on the personal value of poetry, Subramaniam writes that it is all about ‘bringing question marks rather full stops into my life’, and disrupting the ’snug oppositions’ we are so used to: night and day, work and play, truth and beauty. The readings will be in English, followed by a translation into Italian by Andrea Sirotti.

To mark the centenary since her death, readings of Wistawa Szymborska’s poetry will take place at Cimitero degli Allori on via Senese, set to violin by Ladislau Petru Horvath on June 14 at 7 pm. Born in Poland in 1931,  Szymborska is considered one of the most influential Polish poets of her time, with her book sales rivalling those of notable prose authors. Miniaturist in style, her compact poems are characterised by great simplicity and intellectual acuity, employing such devices as paradox and irony to draw out the philosophical themes of her work.

Federico Italiano will be reciting his collection, La Grande Nevicata, at Libreria Libraccio Seeber on June 15 at 5.30 pm. A work conceived during the pandemic, his poetry meditates on the claustrophobia of this unprecedented time, as well as the general atmosphere of uncertainty and nervousness caused by the war in Ukraine and the changing political climate in Europe. Born in Piedmont in 1976, Italiano has published five poetry collections during his lifetime, which have been translated into numerous languages, including German, Spanish and English, among others.  (Sophie Holloway)