In his new collection of verses the poet Valerio Magrelli becomes inspector Magrelli because nowadays all books have an investigator and because he wants to work as “investigator of poetry” in order “to head off on the trails of the mischiefs that remain unpunished in this world”.
This new collection has been presented the 18th of February at the Italian Cultural Institute in London by the poet himself together with the translator Jamie McKendrick and Karen Robinson, from The Times Crime Club. This event in Italian with simultaneous translation in English has been a new stage in the English-Italian dialogue on crime literature.
Valerio Magrelli’s new collection of poems is called “Il commissario Magrelli” and it is introduced by a declaration in which the author explains his ambition of being a kind of avenger. Through a reading of the poems in the two languages, the poet has explored at the Italian Cultural Institute the reasons at the root of the great interest of the crime literature in contemporary society and the relationship between poetry and justice, with the help and participation of Jamie MacKendrick and Karen Robinson. Valerio Magrelli, born in Rome in 1957, is the author of many poetry collections, for which he has won the Mondello Prize, the Viareggio Prize for poetry and the Montale Prize. In November 2003 the Accademia dei Lincei awarded him the Premio Antonio Feltrinelli. A professor of French literature at the University of Cassino, he is also a frequent contributor to the cultural pages of several Italian dailies. His poems have been translated into English, French, Spanish and a number of other languages.
Jamie McKendrick has written six books of poems, the most recent, Out There, won the Hawthornden Prize. He has translated the six books of Giorgio Bassani’s Il romanzo di Ferrara as well as a number of Italian poets. In 2016 he has been awarded the John Florio prize for translation from Italian for his translation of Antonella Anedda’s Archipelago. Karen Robinson is the Supplements Editor of The Sunday Times, and runs The Times / Sunday Times Crime Club, a monthly bulletin dedicated to the best of crime and thriller fiction.
LaR
