Giulia Niccolai (21 December 1934 – 22 June 2021) was an Italian photographer, poet, novelist, and translator.

Biography

The daughter of an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

father and an American mother, she was born in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, and grew up in both Italy and the United States. During the 1950s, she began working as a photojournalist for various Italian, European and American publications, including ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'', ''

Paris Match ''Paris Match'' () is a French-language weekly news magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. History and profile A sports news magazine, ''Match l'intran'' (a play on ''L'Intransigeant' ...

'' and ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

''. In the late 1960s, she quit professional photography to focus on writing. She was a member of the neo-avant-garde group of writers known as

Gruppo 63 The Neoavanguardia ("New Vanguard") was an avant-garde literature of Italy, Italian literary movement oriented towards radical forms of experimentation with language. Some of its most prominent members include Nanni Balestrini, Edoardo Sanguineti, ...

. She produced her first book of poetry ''Humpty Dumpty'', written in English, in 1969. In 1970, with

Adriano Spatola Adriano or Adrião is the form of the Latin given name ''Hadrianus'' commonly used in the Italian language; the form Adrian is used in the English language. Notable people with the name include: * Adriano Banchieri, Italian composer, music theori ...

, she founded the poetry journal ''Tam Tam''. Niccolai published her one and only novel ''Il grande angolo'' in 1966. In 1974, she published ''Poema & Oggetto'', a collection of

visual poetry Literary theorists have identified visual poetry as a development of concrete poetry but with the characteristics of intermedia in which non-representational language and visual elements predominate. Differentiation from concrete poetry As the li ...

. During the 1980s, she became interested in Eastern philosophy, spending time in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and becoming a

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

nun in 1990. In 1994, she published a collection of poems ''Frisbees--Poesie da lanciare'', which won the Premio Feronia. Niccolai has also translated the works of American and English writers into Italian.

Selected works

Poetry

* ''Greenwich'' (1971) * ''Poema & Oggetto'' (1974, 2nd edition 2014) * ''Substitution'' (1975) with

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 ...

, Los Angeles: Red Hill Press. ASIN: B001NBIC64 * ''Facsimile'' (1976) * ''Russky salad ballads & webster poems'' (1977) * ''Harry's bar e altre poesie, 1969-1980'' (1981) introduction by

Giorgio Manganelli Giorgio Manganelli (15 November 1922 – 28 May 1990) was an Italian journalist, avant-garde writer, translator and literary critic. A native of Milan, he was one of the leaders of the avant-garde literary movement in Italy in the 1960s, Gruppo 6 ...

* ''Frisbees. Poesie da Lanciare'' (1981) * ''Orienti/Orients'' (2004) * ''Le due sponde'' (2006) Archinto Publisher. * ''Poemi & Oggetti'' (2012) ed. by Milli Graffi, introduction by Stefano Bartezzaghi * ''Frisbees della vecchiaia'' (2012) Campanotto Publisher * ''Cos'è poesia'' (2015) Edizioni del Verri. * ''Pubblico & Privato'' (2016) bilingual introduction by Alessandro Giammei * ''Foto & Frisbee'' (2016) Oedipus Publisher

Translations

Prosper Mérimée Prosper Mérimée (; 28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, and one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, and a ...

''La notte di San Bartolomeo'' (''St. Bartholomew's Day massacre'') (1975) with Adriano Spatola *

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

''La storia geografica dell'America, o Il rapporto della natura umana con la mente umana'' (''The Geographical History of America, or, The Relation of Human Nature to the Human Mind'') (1980) *

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Under ...

'' Il mio Natale nel Galles'' (1981) *

Beatrix Potter Helen Beatrix Potter (, 28 July 186622 December 1943) was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist. She is best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'', which was he ...

'' Le favole di Ludovico Coniglio'' (1981) * Alexander Sutherland Neill ''La nuvola verde'' (''The last man alive,: A story for children from the age of seven to seventy'') (1981) *

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

''La La vedova e il pappagallo: una storia vera'' (The Widow and the Parrot) (1984) *

Angela Carter Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...

''Gatto Marino e re Drago'' (''Sea-Cat and Dragon King'') (2000)

Others

* ''La nave nel prato'' (''The Ship in the Fields'') (1972), children's literature * ''Esoterico biliardo'', memoir, Archinto Publisher (2001), Collection Gli aquiloni.

References

1934 births 2021 deaths Italian women poets Italian photojournalists Italian women novelists Italian people of American descent English–Italian translators Italian Buddhist nuns Italian Buddhists 20th-century Buddhist nuns 21st-century Buddhist nuns Gruppo 63 People from Milan {{Italy-writer-stub