Description
Literary Nonfiction. Poetry History & Criticism. An older man's not-so-divine comedy, Vangelisti's FALSETTO is in three parts, corresponding to Hell, Purgatory and Paradise: namely, "Westernmost," the Los Angeles of a poet's daybook; the fool's purgatory of "An Italian Journal," some three weeks up & down the peninsula; and finally, "Wholly Falsetto with People Dancing," an alphabetical memoir of that invisible country of dead poets and loves that are no more. The trips through the first two territories in the work, Los Angeles and Italy, are documented more or less "on the run," in stark contrast to the contemplative nature of the final section of recollections. Among the several subjects interwoven throughout the narrative is Vangelisti's exploration of an 'un-American' literary tradition, set up against that of the dominant Anglo-American culture.
Author Bio
Paul Vangelisti has published more than thirty books of poetry and is a noted translator from Italian. His most recent books include UNFOLDING SKY (Lithic Press, 2019), BORDER MUSIC (Talisman House, Publishers, 2016), MAPPING STONE (Otis Books | Seismicity Editions, 2013), WHOLLY FALSETTO WITH PEOPLE DANCING (Otis Books | Seismicity Editions, 2013), and TWO (Talisman House, Publishers, 2010). In 2015, he edited Amiri Baraka's S.O.S.: Poems 1961-2013 for Grove Atlantic; later this year, a bilingual edition of his poems, Imperfect Music, will be forthcoming from Edizioni Galleria Mazzoli in Modena, Italy. In 2006, Lucia Re's and his translation of Amelia Rosselli's War Variations won both the Premio Flaiano in Italy and the PEN-USA Award for Translation. His translation of Adriano Spatola's The Position of Things: Collected Poems, 1961-1992 received the Academy of American Poets translation prize in 2010. Vangelisti lives and works in Los Angeles.
Author City: LOS ANGELES, CA USA