ACTORS & ARTISTS
Massimo Bontempelli (1878-1960) was a key figure of the Italian avant-garde, publishing his first collection, Sette savi (Seven Stages) in 1912 before covering the First World War as a correspondent on the front lines. Following the war, Bontempelli renounced most of his early work and published a collection of micro-novels entitled La vita intensa (The Intense Life), among many other works.
Hugh Dancy is perhaps best known for his work on Hannibal, for which he earned a Saturn Award and two Critics’ Choice nominations. Additional film and television credits include Black Hawk Down, Ella Enchanted, King Arthur, Adam, the television mini-series Elizabeth I, Blood and Chocolate, Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Big C, Deadline Gallipoli, The Path, Late Night, Homeland, and The Good Fight. On stage, Dancy starred off-Broadway in The Pride and Apologia, and on Broadway in Venus in Fur and the revival of Journey’s End.
Hope Davis has appeared in the films About Schmidt; American Splendor; Synecdoche, New York; Captain America: Civil War; and Rebel in the Rye, among others. On television, Davis’s credits include In Treatment, The Newsroom, The Special Relationship, Allegiance, American Crime, and Wayward Pines, and recent recurring roles in the series For the People and Strange Angel. Her theater credits include Ivanov, Two Shakespearean Actors, Spinning Into Butter, Food Chain, Measure for Measure, God of Carnage, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award, and The Red Barn. She will appear in the forthcoming film The Rock Pile and the miniseries Your Honor.
A Cuban citizen before marriage brought her to Italy, Alba de Céspedes (1911-1997) was a passionate activist and writer, founding the influential journal Mercurio, dedicated to art and politics. Her first novel, Nessuno torna indietro (There’s No Turning Back), was an instant bestseller and made into a film. Over the years her work has been translated into nearly 30 languages.
Jhumpa Lahiri received the Pulitzer Prize for her debut story collection, Interpreter of Maladies. She is also the author of The Namesake, Unaccustomed Earth, and The Lowland, a finalist for both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award, and the memoir In Other Words. Lahiri has written three books in Italian. Her translation of Domenico Starnone’s novel Trick was a National Book Award finalist for Translated Literature, and her translation of his novel Ties was a New York Times Notable Book. She lives in Rome, Italy, and Princeton, New Jersey, where she is a Professor of Creative Writing at Princeton University.
Dawn Akemi Saito is an actress, writer, director, and teacher. Her performance credits include Insects in Heat, Suns Are Suns, Blood Cherries, HA, Knock on the Sky, Suicide Forest, Hiroshima Maiden, Arden/Ardennes, My House Is Collapsing Toward One Side, and Deshima. Her own work has been performed at the Walker Art Center, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Orpheum Theatre in Austria, the Berkshire Theater Festival, the Whitney Museum, Dance Theater Workshop, New York Theater Workshop, LaMaMa, New World Theater, the Public Theater, and Aaron Davis Hall. Saito is an Artist-in-Residence at Fordham University/Lincoln Center and is on the movement faculty at Juilliard. She is co-director of the Summer Intensive in Theater Devising at Bard College in Berlin.
Leonardo Sciascia (1921-1989) served as a member of European Parliament and the Palermo city council. He wrote essays and political investigative journalism, in addition to a series of novels, including Il giorno della civetta (The Day of the Owl), A ciascuno il suo (To Each His Own), and the story collection Il mare colore del vino (The Wine-Dark Sea).
John Turturro is an actor and director whose notable film credits include Do the Right Thing; Barton Fink; Quiz Show; The Big Lebowski; The Truce; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; and Mia Madre. He is the director of six films, including Mac, which was honored with the Caméra d’Or at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, and The Jesus Rolls, which he also starred in. On stage, he has appeared in Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, for which was awarded an Obie, Italian-American Reconciliation, La Puta Vida, The Bald Soprano, Steel on Steel, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, End Game, and The Cherry Orchard. Turturro is also known for his television roles on Monk, for which he won an Emmy, The Night Of, The Bronx Is Burning, The Name of the Rose, and most recently, The Plot Against America.
“The Long Voyage” translated by Erica Segre and Simon Carnell
“Invitation to Dinner” translated by Michael F. Moore
“The Miraculous Beach, or, Prize for Modesty” translated by Jenny McPhee
