Introducing their latest books
chaired by Claire Armitstead,
Books Editor, The Guardian and The Observer
The award-winning authors speak about their latest works, the love for Italy and the Italian language, the attitude towards literary translation. Starnone’s most recent books, Ties and Trick, have both been translated into English from Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri; while Jhumpa Lahiri’s first book written in Italian, In altre parole, has been translated into English by Ann Goldstein, the acclaimed translator of Elena Ferrante, and presented in both English and the original Italian.
Domenico Starnone was born in Naples and lives in Rome. He is the author of thirteen works of fiction, including First Execution (Europa, 2009), Via Gemito, winner of Italy’s most prestigious literary prize, the Strega, Ties (Europa, 2017), a New York Times Editor’s Pick, and the Sunday Times’ Best Foreign Novel of 2017, and Trick, to be published in English in March 2018.
Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London and raised in Rhode Island. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and author of two previous books. Her debut collection of stories, Interpreter of Maladies, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the PEN/Hemingway Award and the New Yorker Debut of the Year. Her novel The Namesake was a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist and was selected as one of the best books of the year by USA Today and Entertainment Weekly, among other publications. Her first book written in Italian, In Other Words, was published by Bloomsbury in 2016. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Claire Armitstead is books editor for the Guardian and the Observer, charged with safeguarding the two newspapers’ literary heritage while overseeing the transition to a unified digital-first operation. She was literary editor for the Guardian from 1999-2010, and arts editor from 1995-1999. In 2012 she has worked closely with the British Council and the Edinburgh International Book Festival to bring the World Writers’ Conference to the widest possible audience. She presents the Guardian books podcast and is a regular speaker on literature on radio and at public events.
English PEN is the founding centre of a global literary network, working to defend and promote freedom of expression, and to remove barriers to literature. English PEN’s Writers in Translation programme, established in 2005, champions the best literature from around the world. www.englishpen.org [BOOK NOW]
