Maria Luisa Spaziani

Maria Luisa Spaziani
Spaziani in 1976
Born	(1923-06-21)21 June 1923 Turin, Italy
Died	30 June 2014(2014-06-30) (aged 91) Rome, Italy
Occupation	Poetress, theater writer, translator

Maria Luisa Spaziani (21 June 1923 – 30 June 2014) was an Italian poet.^[1]

Biography

Spaziani was born in Turin. At nineteen, she founded the review Il dado, working with collaborators such as Vasco Pratolini, Sandro Penna and Vincenzo Ciaffi. Virginia Woolf sent her a chapter of her novel The Waves, autographed to Alla piccola direttrice (To the young editor). Spaziani did not contribute her own poems, however, feeling that they were not of sufficient quality.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1950s Spaziani became involved with the poet Eugenio Montale (1896–1981). Montale encouraged Spaziani to write poetry and was a significant influence in her early style. Maria Luisa Spaziani's first book of poetry, Le acque del sabato, appeared in 1954. Montale drew upon his affair with her in creating the character of la Volpe ("the Fox") in his work La bufera e altro (1956). Montale's poem "Da un lago svizzero" is an acrostic forming her name, Maria Luisa Spaziani. (Spaziani eventually published her correspondence with Montale, some eight hundred letters, in 1995.)^{[citation needed]}

After travelling extensively in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in countries including the United Kingdom, Belgium, Greece, France, and the Soviet Union, Spaziani chose to settle in Rome. Starting from 1964 she taught French language and literature at the University of Messina. She published extensively, as a poet, translator, and scholar.^{[citation needed]}

Spaziani was nominated thrice for the

Spaziani was the president of the Centro Internazionale Eugenio Montale, which confers the Premio Montale, a literary prize for translations and publications of Italian verse.^[citation needed]

Spaziani died on 30 June 2014 at the age of 91.^[2]

List of works

Each year links to its corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

• 1954: Le acque del sabato
• 1959: Luna lombarda
• 1962: Il gong
• 1966: Utilità della memoria
• 1970: L’occhio del ciclone
• 1976: Ultrasuoni
• 1977: Transito con catene
• 1981: Geometria del disordine
• 1986: La stella del libero arbitrio
• 1990: Giovanna d'Arco
• 1992: Torri di vedata
• 1996: I fasti dell’ortica
• 1998: La traversata dell'oasi
• 1999: La radice del mare
• 1999: Un fresco castagneto
• 2000: La freccia
• 2002: Poesie dalla mano sinistra

References

Sources

• Star of Free Will, Maria Luisa Spaziani 1986
• Italian women writers: a bio-bibliographical sourcebook By Rinaldina Russell, page 395