Amelia Rosselli (28 March 1930 – 11 February 1996) was an Italian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

. She was the daughter of Marion Catherine Cave, an English political activist, and Carlo Rosselli, who was a hero of the Italian anti-Fascist Resistance—founder, with his brother Nello, of the liberal socialist movement " Justice and Liberty." He and his brother were assassinated by

La Cagoule La Cagoule (''The Cowl'', press nickname coined by the ''Action Française'' nationalist Maurice Pujo), originally called the ''Organisation secrète d'action révolutionnaire nationale'' (Osarn or OSAR; Secret Organisation for revolutionary nat ...

, secret services of the

Fascist regime Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

, while the extended family was living in exile in France in 1937. The family then moved between England and the United States, where Rosselli was educated. She continued to speak Italian with her grandmother, Amelia Pincherle Rosselli, a Venetian Jewish feminist, playwright, and translator from a family prominent in the Italian

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

, the movement for independence. Rosselli returned to Italy in 1949, eventually settling in Rome. She spent her life studying composition, music, and ethnomusicology and taking part in the cultural life of postwar Italy as a poet and literary translator. Her extraordinary, highly experimental literary output includes verse and poetic prose in English and French as well as Italian. She committed suicide in 1996 by jumping from her fifth floor apartment near Rome's

Piazza Navona Piazza Navona () is a public open space in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in the 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans went there to watch the '' agones' ...

. Rosselli has been translated into English by Lucia Re, Jennifer Scappettone, Gian Maria Annovi, Diana Thow, Deborah Woodard,

Paul Vangelisti Paul Vangelisti (born 1945) is a United States poet and broadcaster. He graduated from the University of San Francisco in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Philosophy. He attended Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, for a year as a researc ...

, and Cristina Viti.

Poetry collections in English

*''Sonno - Sleep (1953-1966)'', bilingual edition, translated into Italian by

Antonio Porta Antonio Alejandro Porta Pernigotti (born 28 October 1983) is a former Argentine-Italian professional basketball player, who lasted played with the Svendborg Rabbits in the Danish Basketball League. He played at both the point guard and shooti ...

. Roma: Rossi & Spera, 1989. *''Sleep: Poesie in Inglese'', bilingual edition, translated into Italian by Emmanuela Tandello. Milano: Garzanti, 1992 *''October Elizabethans'', bilingual edition, edited and translated into Italian by Emmanuela Tandello. Genova: San Marco dei Giustiniani, 2015 (posthumous)

Poetry collections in Italian

*''Variazioni belliche''. Milano: Garzanti, 1964 (''War Variations'', translated by Lucia Re and

. Green Integer, 2003) *''Serie ospedaliera''. Milano: Il Saggiatore, 1969 (''Hospital Series'', translated by Deborah Woodard, Roberta Antognini, Giuseppe Leporace. New Directions, 2015) *''Documento (1966-1973)''. Milano: Garzanti, 1976 *''Primi scritti 1952-1963''. Milano: Guanda, 1980 *''Impromptu''. Genova: Edizioni San Marco dei Giustiniani, 1981 (''Impromptu. A Trilingual Edition'', translated by Gian Maria Annovi, Diana Thow, Jean-Charles Vegliante. Guernica, 2015) *''Appunti sparsi e persi, 1966-1977: Poesie''. Reggio Emilia: Aelia Laelia, 1983 *''La libellula''. Milano: SE, 1985 *''Antologia poetica''. Milano: Garzanti, 1987 *''Le poesie''. Milano: Garzanti, 1997 *''Appunti sparsi e persi: 1966-1977''. Roma: Empiria, 1997 (posthumous) *''La furia dei venti contrari. Variazioni: Con testi inediti e dispersi dell'autrice'', Firenze, Le lettere, 2007 (posthumous) *''La libellula e altri scritti'', Milano, SE, 2010 (posthumous) (''The Dragonfly: A Selection of Poems: 1953-1981'', translated by Giuseppe Leporace & Deborah Woodard. Chelsea Editions, 2010) * ''L'opera poetica'', edited by Stefano Giovannuzzi. Milano: "I Meridiani" Mondadori, 2012 (posthumous)

Selected poetry originally written in English or Italian

*''Locomotrix: Selected Poetry and Prose of Amelia Rosselli'', edited and translated by Jennifer Scappettone. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012) (posthumous)

Creative prose

*''Prime prose italiane'' (1954) *''Nota (1967–1968)'' *''Diario ottuso. 1954-1968''. Roma: IBN, 1990 (''Obtuse Diary'', translated by Deborah Woodard, Roberta Antognini, Dario De Pasquale. Entre Ríos Books, 2018)

Critical writings

*''Una scrittura plurale: Saggi e interventi critici'', edited by Francesca Caputo. Novara: Interlinea, 2004 (posthumous)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosselli, Amelia 1930 births 1996 suicides Gruppo 63 Suicides by jumping in Italy Writers from Paris Jewish Italian writers Jewish poets 20th-century Italian Jews 20th-century Italian poets Burials in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome People with Parkinson's disease 20th-century Italian women writers Italian women poets