Organized by Paolo Valesio & Nicola Di Nino, Columbia. Co-sponsors: Italian Poetry Review; Dept. of Italian, Columbia; Dept. of Modern Languages & Literatures, Fordham; Accademia Olimpica di Vicenza.
The Italian Poetry Review (IPR) has organized a symposium on the writer Antonio Barolini, the centenary of whose birth falls in 2010.
Speakers at the symposium include the poet's widow Helen Barolini and his daughter Professor Teodolinda Barolini, as well as Nicola Di Nino(Columbia University), the organizer of the symposium, Paolo Valesio(Chair of the Department of Italian at Columbia), Renato Camurri(University of Verona), Monica Giachino and Michela Rusi (University “Ca’ Foscari ” of Venice).
Antonio Barolini (1910-1971) was a poet, novelist and journalist whose life spanned Italy and United States. In 1943, he directed the local newspaper in his native city Vicenza, where he was jailed for his attempts at freedom of expression. Later, he collaborated with another intellectual from Vicenza: Neri Pozza who, with Barolini’s guidance launched what became a prestigious publishing house. In this period, Barolini wrote a collection of poems Il meraviglioso giardino (1942) and a novel La memoria di Stefano(1943).
In the 1950s, Barolini moved to the United States and began a new and creative phase of his literary career. He collaborated with The New Yorkerand published the poetry collection Elegie di Croton (1959), with which he won the prestigious Premio Bagutta, and the novel Una lunga pazzia(1962).
His literary production, which earned the praise of writers such as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Eugenio Montale, Pietro Pancrazi, Geno Pampaloni, and others, is in need of a revisitation today. To this end, the Barolini heirs have donated the full archives of the Barolini papers to the Biblioteca Bertoliana of Vicenza. These documents include correspondence with major political and cultural figures of Italy and the United States during the 1960s and 1970s