conversation and reading > Dacia Maraini

Novelist, poet, dramatist, journalist and, above all, a woman who penned some of the most important pages of Italian literature and contemporary fiction, Dacia Maraini wrote more than seventy books, which have been translated in more than thirty languages. Today she is still a prolific writer, capable of relating to her audience as if she just started her career.

During this intimate conversation with Mark Axelrod, Professor of Comparative Literature in the Department of English at Chapman University, Orange, California, Maraini will explore the themes and the main topics of her research and literary production, from women rights to her relationship with new generations of readers, and her friendship with Pier Paolo Pasolini.

The interview will be followed by a theatrical reading of selected excerpts from Maraini’s Love Letters,  performed by award winning actress Francesca Fanti. Love Letters draws on original  beautifully crafted love letters by author Gabriele D’Annuzio to recreate a hidden family drama between a daughter and her dead mother.

22nd Annual Week of Italian Language in the World
Under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic of Italy

DACIA MARAINI is one of the most prominent figures of Italian culture alive today: a writer, playwright, screenwriter, poet, journalist, translator, and essayist. She has won, amongst others, the most prestigious literature awards in Italy: Campiello, Strega, Alabarda d’oro, Cimitile, Pinuccio Tatarella, Fregene, and Viareggio. In addition to these achievements, throughout her life, Dacia Maraini has fought for women’s and children’s rights, which are the main topics of both her research and her literary production. Maraini’s books have been translated into twenty-two languages and some of her bestsellers —such as Storia di Piera (Piera’s Story), L’età del malessere (The Age of Malaise), La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa (The Silent Duchess), Voci (Voices), and Memorie di una ladra (Memoirs of a Female Thief) — were turned into successful movies. In her autobiographies, Bagheria and La nave per Kobe (The Ship to Kobe), the author speaks about the period spent with her family in Japan from 1938 to 1945, her reclusion in the Japanese concentration camps (1943- 1945), and her life in Sicily (1946-on). Amongst Maraini’s works we should also mention the following: Donna in guerra (Woman at War), 1975; Il treno per Helsinki (The Train), 1984; Buio (Darkness), 1999; Maria Stuarda e altre commedie (Mary Stuart and Other Comedies), 2001; La ragazza di via Maqueda (Via Maqueda’s Girl), 2009; La grande festa (The Great Celebration), 2011; L’amore rubato (Stolen Love), 2012; Chiara d’Assisi. Elogio della disobbedienza (Clare of Assisi: In Praise of Disobedience), 2013; La bambina e il sognatore (The Little Girl and the Dreamer), 2015; Taccuino americano (1964-2016) (American Notebook [1964- 2016]), 2016; Tre donne. Una storia d’amore e disamore (Three Women. A Story of Love and Disaffection), 2017; Corpo felice. Storia di donne, rivoluzioni e un figlio che se ne va (Happy Body. History of Women, Revolutions and a Son Who Leaves), 2018; Trio. Storia di due amiche, un uomo e la peste a Messina (Trio. Story of two friends, a man, and the plague in Messina), 2020; La scuola ci salverà (School will save us), 2021; Caro Pier Paolo (Dear Pier Paolo), 2022; Sguardo a Oriente (Look to the East), 2022.

MARK AXELROD-SOKOLOV is a Full Professor of Comparative Literature in the Department of English at Chapman University, Orange, California. Prior to teaching at Chapman, he taught at the University of East Anglia, UK and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is a graduate of both Indiana University (BA, MA) and the University of Minnesota (PhD) and also received a grant to study at Oxford University A writer of fiction and film, he has been the Director of the John Fowles Center for Creative Writing for twenty-six years. His latest novel to be published by Dalkey Archive Press is titled, The Mad Diary of Malcolm Malarkey.

FRANCESCA FANTI has been working in theater, film and TV productions in Italy and the US. She can be seen in the FX TV series “American Crime Story – The Assassination of Gianni Versace” in the role of Franca Versace, mom of Gianni. Fanti’s other notable US performances include a starring role in Bryan Singer’s critically acclaimed “H+” The Digital Series and in Nine opposite Daniel Day Lewis. Fanti’s work in experimental media includes a leading role in Distant Vision, a live cinema production directed by Francis Ford Coppola as a month-long project at UCLA. 
A versatile actor, Fanti has provided voice work for many projects including “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” and the recently Oscar nominated “Luca”. She has also worked on many commercials.  Fanti’s theater achievements include a comedy one-woman show “Orgasmo Adulto Escapes From the Zoo,” for which Francesca won the ADA Artistic Director Achievement Award for Best Actress in a Comedy in Los Angeles and The Bay Area Critics Award for Best Solo Performance in San Francisco. In Italy, Francesca worked with American character actor Vincent Schiavelli, presenting the show “Cc’era ‘Na Vota” in Sicilian dialect (not her own) to audiences in Sicily. After seeing Francesca’s sterling performance of “Love Letters” at the IIC in Los Angeles in 2009, writer Dacia Maraini invited Francesca to perform the show in Italy. Francesca has also brought Maraini’s “Dialogue Between a Prostitute and Her Client” to critically acclaimed performances in Pasadena, CA. Francesca is working on staging “Love Letters” both in LA and San Francisco in the coming year.