GIUSEPPE BERTO (1914–1978) was born in a small town in Veneto, Italy, and went on to author numerous screenplays, short stories, and novels, including The Sky Is Red, written during his time as a P. O. W. in Texas. A controversial author in postwar Italy, Berto was nevertheless the recipient of the Viareggio Prize and the Campiello Prize, and his work has drawn more critical attention in recent years. He is the author of Oh, Serafina! (Rutgers University Press).
GREGORY CONTI has over twenty-five published translations, including works by Emilio Lussu, Rosetta Loy, and Paolo Rumiz. His most recent translations include novels by Giuseppe Berto (Oh, Serafina!: A Fable of Ecology, Lunacy, and Love, Rutgers University Press, 2023) and Edoardo Nesi (My Shadow is Yours). He has lived in Perugia, Italy, since 1985.
ALESSANDRO VETTORI is a professor of Italian and comparative literature at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. He is the author of several books, including Giuseppe Berto: La passione della scrittura (Marsilio Editore, 2013), and is a coeditor of the Other Voices of Italy series at Rutgers University Press.
Rosetta Loy, author of seven novels, is one of Italy’s leading contemporary writers. Her work has garnered numerous major literary prizes in Italy as well as the 1996 European Prize for literature. Gregory Conti has translated five books from Italian, including Rosetta Loy’s childhood memoir, First Words.
Alessandro Vettori teaches in the Department of Italian, Rutgers University.