A Reading and Conversation with Italian Author Dacia Maraini

The Department of Romance Studies presents Vita mia: A Reading and Converstaion with Italian author Dacia Maraini.

Dacia Maraini is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, journalist, and activist. She spent her early childhood in Japan where, in 1943, because of her parents’ anti-fascist views and refusal to sign papers declaring allegiance to Mussolini’s Fascist Republic of Salò, she, at age seven, with her family, was confined to a Japanese prison camp in Nagoyo. After Japan, she and her family returned to Sicily, and later she moved to Rome.

As a writer and political activist, Dacia Maraini has given voice to women silenced across time and space, and fought against abuse and violence against children and women. She is the author of over twenty novels, many short stories, several plays, collections of poetry, essays, and reportage. Maraini’s books have been translated into twenty-two languages. She has written screenplays for directors, including Marco Ferreri, Margarethe Von Trotta, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. She was the co-founder of the feminist theatre La Maddalena in Rome, and her plays are staged in Italy and around the world. She has won numerous awards, including the very prestigious Campiello and Strega Awards.