A writer’s journey: Ferrante &…Elsa Morante
Thursday 27 March, 6.30pm
Tim Parks in conversation with Cristina Marconi
Chaired by Lucy Popescu
Second in the series of three events ‘A Writer’s Journey: Ferrante &… ‘ curated by Olga Campofreda for ICI London
In the New York Times list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend is the top title. This fact not only confirms the importance of Ferrante’s book but also the impact of a novel that has been loved by readers all over the world. The ‘Ferrante Fever’ – the global success of Ferrante’s riveting four-book series – has been an amazing phenomenon which has managed to secure a renewed interest in female writers and in literary translation, including some classic authors that had been overlooked until then, both in Italy and abroad.
As we mark 10 years since publication of the Neapolitan Quartet was completed, the series ‘A writer’s journey: Ferrante &…’ intends to focus on the female Italian writers that have been acknowledged as important sources of inspiration by Elena Ferrante.
The series of three encounters dedicated respectively to Alba de Céspedes, Elsa Morante and Natalia Ginzburg, will engage each time different Italian and international contemporary female writers, in conversation about a classic book.
Second appointment, Thursday 27 March at 6.30pm, Tim Parks and Cristina Marconi, chaired by Lucy Popescu, talk about Elsa Morante and in particular her her book Arturo’s Island, published by Pushkin Press in the beautiful English translation by Ann Goldstein.
Book your place HERE
Tim Parks grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard. In 1981 he moved to Italy where he has lived ever since. He has written twenty novels including Europa (shortlisted for the Booker prize), Destiny, Cleaver, In Extremis and, most recently, Mr Geography. His non-fiction works include two accounts of life in northern Italy, Italian Neighbours and An Italian Education, complemented in 2002 by A Season with Verona, a grand overview of Italian life as seen through the business and passion of football, and Italian Ways, on and off the rails from Milan to Palermo. Other non-fiction works include Medici Money, Teach Us to Sit Still, and Out of My Head, On the Trail of Consciousness.In 2020, he published Italian Life, a Modern Fable of Loyalty and Betrayal and in 2021 The Hero’s Way, Walking with Garibaldi from Rome to Ravenna. A regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books, his many essays are collected in Hell and Back, The Fighter, A Literary Tour of Italy, and Life and Work. In recent years he has been publishing a series of blogs on writing, reading, translation and the like in the New York Review online. These have recently been collected in Where I am Reading From and Pen in Hand. He has translated works by Moravia, Pavese, Calvino, Calasso, Machiavelli and Leopardi; his book, Translating Style, which analyses Italian translations of the English modernists, is considered a classic in its field.
Cristina Marconi is a writer and journalist, she has been the London correspondent for the Italian daily newspaper Il Messaggero and Il Foglio for over 10 years. Her first book Città irreale (Ponte alle Grazie, 2019), set in London, was awarded several prizes. After A Londra con Virginia Woolf and the collection Come dirti addio, she has written Stelle solitarie (Einaudi, 2024), a story of friendship. She currently lives in Milan, she keeps writing including for newspapers and teaches.
Lucy Popescu is a writer, editor and arts critic with a background in human rights. She worked with the English Centre of PEN, the international association of writers, for over 20 years and was Director of its Writers in Prison Committee from 1991 to 2006. She is currently chair of the Authors’ Club and its Best First Novel Award. Her books include two anthologies, A Country to Call Home, and A Country of Refuge, focusing on the experiences of refugees. Lucy reviews books for various publications including The Observer, Financial Times, TLS and New Humanist. She has a particular interest in literary fiction in translation and free expression.