Claudia Durastanti

Claudia Durastanti
Claudia Durastanti (2017)
Claudia Durastanti (2017)
Born (1984-06-08) 8 June 1984 (age 40)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
OccupationNovelist, translator, journalist
Language
  • Italian
  • English
Citizenship
  • Italy
  • United States
Years active2010–present

Claudia Durastanti (born 8 June 1984) is an Italian writer and translator.

Early life

Durastanti was born in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Bensonhurst to two deaf Italian parents, who divorced in 1990. After their divorce, Durastanti (aged 6) moved to the Basilicata region of southern Italy with her mother. This and other aspects of her life (like an incident in which her father kidnapped her as a child) are described in her semi-autobiographical novel La Straniera (published in English as Strangers I Know).[1][2][3][4]

Durastanti studied cultural anthropology at the Sapienza University of Rome and continued her studies at De Montfort University. She then returned to Rome where she earned a master's degree in publishing and journalism.[5]

Career

Durastanti was shortlisted for the 2019 Strega Prize and Viareggio Prize with La Straniera (La nave di Teseo, 2019). The book is translated into twenty-one languages and is being adapted into a TV show.[1]

Her work has appeared in Granta, the Los Angeles Review of Books and The Serving Library.

She is a board member of the Turin International Book Fair and co-founded the Italian Festival of Literature in London.[6]

She has translated several works into Italian, including Joshua Cohen's The Netanyahus and Donna Haraway's Staying with the Trouble, as well as Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.[6]

She writes a music column for Internazionale and serves as a curator for the feminist imprint La Tartaruga, founded by Laura Lepetit in 1975.

Personal life

At various points in her life, she has lived in Brooklyn, Basilicata, London, and Rome. After the publication of Strangers I Know, she briefly lived in New York during the COVID-19 pandemic, before moving back to Rome, where she lived as of January 2023.[7] [1] [8]

Works

In Italian

  • Un giorno verrò a lanciare sassi alla tua finestra, Venezia, Marsilio, 2010 ISBN 978-88-317-0572-1.
  • A Chloe, per le ragioni sbagliate, Venezia, Marsilio, 2013 ISBN 978-88-317-1670-3.
  • Cleopatra va in prigione, Roma, minimum fax, 2016 ISBN 978-88-7521-745-7.
  • La straniera, Milano, La nave di Teseo, 2019 ISBN 978-88-93447-75-1.[6]

In English

Translations

References

  1. ^ a b c Colleran, Mia (28 January 2022). "A Formal Feeling: A Conversation with Claudia Durastanti". The Paris Review. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  2. ^ Durastanti, Claudia (2019). "Claudia Durastanti". Santa Maddalena Foundation. Archived from the original on 30 May 2023. Retrieved 16 December 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. ^ Peschel, Joseph (February 2022). "Claudia Durastanti's Strangers I Know". Brooklyn Rail. Archived from the original on 16 December 2023. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  4. ^ Durastanti, Claudia (2022). La straniera [Strangers I Know]. Translated by Harris, Elizabeth. Great Britain: Fitzcarraldo Editions. ISBN 978-1-913097-83-7.
  5. ^ "Claudia Durastanti". Maxim Gorki Theater. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  6. ^ a b c "Claudia Durastanti". Granta. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  7. ^ Chianese, Francesco (16 May 2022). "From "La Straniera" to "Strangers I know": Claudia Durastanti's Journey through Languages, Cultures, Genres, and Genders". Reading in Translation. Archived from the original on 25 September 2023. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  8. ^ Handal, Nathalie (18 January 2023). "The City and the Writer: In Rome with Claudia Durastanti". Words Without Borders. Archived from the original on 6 June 2023. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  9. ^ "STRANGERS I KNOW". Fitzcarraldo Editions. Retrieved 26 January 2022.