In October you will be at Salò to present the book "Women. Poets of France and beyond Romanticism to Today ", written with Andrea Bedeschi and Adriano Marchetti. How did the idea of ​​tackling this issue arise? How did you develop the book?

"This anthology is a poetic women's anthology and we have felt the need to write it because, according to us, women were not equally represented in classical anthologies. Even in the recent anthologies of poets of the twentieth century, they are always in a minority. Strangely, compiling this feminine anthology from romance to today, both French and French, we found that the hardest thing to do was choose: there were so many, more than you could think of. It was a very long job that started several years ago, I was involved four years ago but I know some colleagues like prof. Adriano Marchetti worked on these poets (we do not want to call them "poetess") by finding them in various publishing houses that have invested in women's poetry.

Poetry is universal and there are no male or female themes, no gender or sex distinction is known. "
Is the Italian situation comparable to the French one? Do you think it is a generalized phenomenon that of masculine in culture that is taught in a particular state?

"More than masculine we can speak of a patriarchal mentality that determines the canon. There is still a lot to be done in the street for a fair representation in genre poetry, but also for transgender poetry. If we look at the representation of women writers in both Italian and French school anthologies we realize that there is a strong social injustice as well.

The context in which women lived in the past centuries, for example, thinking of access to education, determined that they were not represented in society. "
How did you choose which authors to enter and which ones to leave? How do you recognize the value of a work? What were your assessment tools?

"It was a very complicated business ... we had to choose about 67 poets enclosed in about 450 pages. For each of them, we selected 3 or 4 poems. The choice was made by trying to keep in mind the writers who won more prizes, but also the lesser known ones but we liked them more; was a choice also dictated by our taste. We have therefore joined some of the more bold classical choices, especially for the poets of the 21st century. "
Citing Gaber 'talk about philosophy today is like, on a cold winter day, getting a pisciatina to feel a bit of tephorin'. Why do you think it's important to talk about poetry today?

"This anthology has also become an act of deep faith in poetry and its universality, in communicating what is most human. It is no coincidence that even in times of profound crisis, peasants and people with very little education, they have taken paper and pen and have been writing. An astonishing case is that of the Spanish civil war. Again, by virtue of this faith, we have tried to include many poetic forms: for example, from romance to today we have included both the more traditional poems (sonnets, verse poems) and the poetry, space poetry on the page. Poetry is also born to tell a story, but in a compact form.

Ci tengo a sottolineare che ritengo la poesia non una forma elitaria ma come una cosa universale e aperta a tutti. Questo libro non è rivolto solo a universitari ma è aperto a tutti, ad un grande pubblico. Nella serata che si terrà a Salò saranno presenti anche degli attori che reciteranno alcuni versi affinché la poesia possa essere anche sentita e ascoltata, oltre che letta. La poesia è un momento d’incontro e di scambio”.

When you come home, even after a short trip, one of the first things to do is to see if something has changed since we left. Traveling and confronting you with different cultures, when you come home, what are the first feelings and differences that you most notice?

"Probably I'll be a bit strange but traveling, when I go home, I only see the positive sides. I have again appreciated the positive side of Italy, that is, the fact that the standard of living in Italy is still still very high compared to other countries. A family can still find themselves in the square to have an aperitif and socialize, go for a pizza. In Italy "the beautiful" is still shared with everyone, the beauty of the square, the natural beauties ... We read a text on a shirt that said "life is too short to be Italian" (life is too short not to be Italian) ".
It was rumored that the French were the best wines, then it turned out that even the Italians had theirs because, in literature, how did we put it? In a hypothetical Italian - French literary who would you put in the field?

"For a Frenchman like me is a difficult question (laughs). I think that the point of anthology is just to show the importance of cultural exchange. This anthology also wants to demonstrate this, the importance of translation, of having the text in front. I think that the various contexts have enriched each other and that the translator also plays an important role as a mediator. The great message is also this: poetry becomes stronger with cultural exchange, making our experience universal. "

The appointment is for Monday, November 9, at the Bloom bar in Salò, at 6:30 pm for a literary aperitif with the presentation of the book "Women. Poets of France and beyond: from romance to today "by Andrea Bedeschi, Valentina Gosetti and Adriano Marchetti, edited by Ladolfi Editore.