Born Traveling: Dacia Maraini in a Belknap Global Conversation

A Belknap Global Conversation presented by the Humanities Council will feature a reading by award-winning writer and activist Dacia Maraini in Italian with English supertitles followed by a conversation in English with faculty members Alessandro Giammei and Jhumpa Lahiri. This event is free and open to the public; a reception will follow.

Co-sponsored by the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Creative Writing, the Department of French and Italian, the Program in Italian Studies, and the Program in European Cultural Studies.

Maraini is the author of 16 novels and 20 plays, as well as various screenplays, poems, and cultural criticisms, and is heralded as a feminist for the autonomy and independent voices she gives her female characters. During her childhood, Maraini and her family were interned in a Japanese concentration camp for refusing to support Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, an experience that contributed to her anti-fascists works and social activism later in life. This background inspired the feminism apparent in novels such as Marianna Ucria, recipient of the Premio Campiello award in Italy, and in her criticisms of Italy as a whole. A columnist for the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Serra, Maraini was the recipient of the 1999 Premio Strega, Italy’s most prestigious literary award, as well as other awards including the Formentor Prize and the Premio Fregene. Maraini also helped found and write for the del Porcospino theatrical company, whose mission is to produce new Italian plays, and founded the Teatro della Maddalena, a theatrical company run entirely by women.