Saturday, May 16, 2020

Do good work (c/o Melanie Vugich's Facebook feed)

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Thursday, May 14, 2020

My students are still keeping a journal

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As I mentioned in a previous post, I asked my students to keep what I called a Coronavirus Journal when our course went from live lessons t...
Sunday, April 19, 2020

Poetry translations published by Asymptote Journal

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Asymptote Journal has published four poems by Edith Bruck that I translated from Italian. It provides me with a much-needed respite sinc...
Tuesday, April 07, 2020

"Prima Pagina" -- an ode to my favorite Italian radio show

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When I launched this blog, I wrote to reflect my own joy in knowing Italian, studying Italian and speaking Italian and also to inspire tha...
Saturday, March 28, 2020

Coronavirus Journal ... for the Brevity Nonfiction Blog

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I've asked my students at Wesleyan to keep a coronavirus journal -- a diary of their days as they navigate what are truly unprecedente...
Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Review: A GIRL RETURNED by Donatella Di Pietrantonio

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Finally, my review of one of the best Italian novels of 2019 has run! You can find my whole review of A GIRL RETURNED   here on the Kenyo...
Monday, March 16, 2020

From the Leo Journal: ROAR!

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Feb. 22, 2017 2:17 p.m. While he plays by himself, I overhear him as he says again and again one word: “Roar!” He loves to pretend he’...
Sunday, March 08, 2020

This one's for Brenda and Eddie (or post-Italy blues)

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Driving home in a trance from JFK, some 20 hours after leaving our hotel in Rome, Mike prowled the radio dial for anything that would keep...
Monday, February 10, 2020

Octopus arms

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Dec. 31, 2017 -- From the Leo journal: “It would be great if people could live on Earth forever --” *Pause* “-- and have octopus...
Wednesday, January 08, 2020

Jhumpa Lahiri and the Rapture of Italian

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I am not a full-time literary critic, which has one particular advantage: I get to choose which books I review. And I jumped at the chance...
Sunday, December 29, 2019

The Year in Reading (What I actually read)

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I set myself a goal of reading  50 books  this year (almost to dare myself to read that many), with the idea of starting off with a set of...
Monday, December 16, 2019

The Year in Writing (and Translation) -- 2019

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The year -- in writing, in living, in anything -- never quite turns out how you planned it, right? Sad to say, I rarely get all the writ...
Monday, December 02, 2019

Time for the panettone (redux)

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I've always thought about  panettone  at this time of the year, even back before you could find the little Italian Christmas loaves ever...
Thursday, November 21, 2019

Dear Marie Kondo -- from the archives!

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Dear Marie Kondo, I know that your book has helped many people pare down, and since a relocation has consumed me for much of 2017 – m...
Tuesday, November 12, 2019

After the translation conference

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I study the program, zeroing in on the participants' bios. The section where the gold is hidden. That's what I do after the conf...
Monday, November 04, 2019

A map of my places

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May 2019 I was out for a walk the other day before an early editing shift and I strolled over to the old cemetery -- the small one, the on...
Friday, October 25, 2019

On leaving Atlanta

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Aug. 8, 2017 I write on a kitchen counter cluttered with all the items that were removed from side tables that have also since been remove...
Tuesday, October 01, 2019

Here's what I read (2019)

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I've set myself a goal of reading 50 books this year. Not sure I will make it! (I note, sadly). I started off with a set of particula...
Wednesday, September 18, 2019

My Montreal memento shrine

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I create memento shrines when I return from Italy (or when Mike does) -- carefully-arranged piles of all the precious Italian goods I'...
Thursday, August 29, 2019

Libri & livres (or What I bought in Montreal)

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I've fallen in love with Montreal of late for many reasons, and certainly chief among them is the possibility of buying actual Italia...