Versione Italiana
Arielle Saiber (see picture) is an Associate Professor of Romance Languages at Bowdoin College (her page here). She is also a fan and and an expert of Italian Science Fiction. She recently came to Italy for research, as well as to meet writers and get to know the Italian Fandom. Massimo Mongai interviewed her for our blog.
Massimo Mongai: You spent almost a month in various cities in Italy and done a tour of Italian Fandom. Where have you been, who did you meet? Writers, publishers, enthusiasts?
Arielle Saiber: It was a marvelous journey! My husband, Kavi Montanaro, who is also a science fiction fan, accompanied me to many of the meetings and meals, and he heroically stretched his Italian to new levels of fluency.
The first few days were in VIGEVANO, where I worked with Giuseppe Lippi, editor of Urania at Mondadori: on our anthology, tentatively titled Fantascienza: An Anthology of Italian Science Fiction (1860s-1960s). I am so honored to be working with Giuseppe, who is a veritable encyclopedia of SF and its lore, and an extraordinary reader, writer, and editor. Our anthology is for Wesleyan University Press (and academic press with the best series for scholarly studies on science fiction in the US). Fantascienza will be the first anthology of Italian science fiction in English.
-In Vigevano, Giuseppe organized a dinner out with the excellent writer Dario Tonani, superb translators Laura Serra and Silvia Castoldi, and Mauro Catoni, a.k.a Gort, the collector and creator of the website SF quadrant who generously helped me find tons of material when I was writing the article “The Fiction of Italian Science Fiction” .
-While in the MILANO area, I met with Professor Carlo Pagetti and his graduate student Giulia Iannucci, who just completed a thesis on Italian SF. I also had a magnificent meal organized and co-cooked by Luigi and Marina Petruzzelli. Luigi is doing tireless and exceptional work as editor and publisher of Edizioni della Vigna. At the lunch I had the opportunity to meet the great illustrator Giuseppe Festino and the prodigious collector Dario Vaghi.
-Then on to BOLOGNA, where I had my first lunch with Giovanni De Matteo, one of the founders of the Connettivismo collective and an extraordinary young writer whose work I am following. I will be giving a paper on his writing and Connettivismo at the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts in October. The next day I met Valerio Evangelisti for lunch and I was overwhelmed by his graciousness. We spoke for nearly 3 hours straight. My awe for his erudition, talents, vision, and impegno could only but soar. I also had the chance to spend time with the wonderful author Debora Montanari, who has become a dear friend, and Jadel Andreetto (of Kai Zen), who has been doing excellent work in narrative and criticism. And as a bonus, I got to meet Marco Cordero from Genova, who has started a new publishing house called Cordero Editore, and just released his first SF anthology Sognavamo macchine volanti, which invited authors to write short stories in 1960s-SF style. The bolognese Armando Corridore and Ugo Malaguti, of Elara Libri, I would meet at Bellaria a few weeks later.
-On to FIRENZE for the next few weeks. There I was primarily doing research for a book on the conversation between mathematics and literature in the Renaissance, but I had a phenomenal lunch at Teatro del Sale with the sociologist and author Carlo Bordoni, who is also the editor of the superb magazine and blog IF: Insolito e Fantastico), and the amazing and prolific Gian Filippo Pizzo and Walter Catalano. I also got to meet the brilliant Germanist scholar and SF author Professor Alessandro Fambrini for dinner on another occasion.
-Then, on to BELLARIA for Italcon. I met so many people there, it would be impossible to list all of them, and I apologize if someone is reading this who I met and do not mention. I will include a list of names below. A special thanks, however, goes to Gianni Montanari who showered me with books, and regaled me with stories from his past and his years editing Urania.
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-a few authors of the Connettivismo collective Giovanni Agnoloni, Sandro Battisti, Giovanni De Matteo, Lukha Kremo (who is also the publisher of Kipple Officina Libraria and Francesco Verso. I had the chance to interview Battisti, De Matteo, Kremo, and Verso about the origins, vision, and production of the Connettivisti.
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-author, editor, publisher, Italcon organizer Armando Corridore of Elara Libri (who kindly hosted me at this conference and also gifted me with many books)
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-author, director Luigi Cozzi
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-author, critic, editor Gianfranco De Turris (who I would meet again in Rome)
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-author and critic Domenico Gallo
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-Luigi Lo Forti, writer, editor, and publisher of the new magazine, Altri Sogni: Rivista digitale di horror, sci-fi, e weird
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-writer, critic, editor, and publisher at Elara Libri, Ugo Malaguti
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-Davide Monopoli of the Museo del Fantastico in Torino
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-author, editor, publisher, critic Gianni Montanari
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-authors Vittorio Piccirillo and Donato Altomare
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-scholar and critic Salvatore Proietti (who I would meet again in Rome)
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-publisher Marco Solfanelli of Edizioni Solfanelli
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-editor and publisher Silvio Sosio of Fantascienza.com and Delos Books