Francesca Dono

SIX DEGREES FROM THE NORTH POLE

Translated from the Itlaian by Lilly Sutherlin

 

 

 

 

ISBN 978-1-879378-70-4
145 pages, bilingual, $15
Publication date: July 23, 2020

 

 

 

Author Biography | Read Selection

Purchase: Credit card (Amazon.com) - Pending

 


 

Francesca Dono, Six Degrees From the North Pole. Sharp and slippery poems that catch the fragments of mind, matter and movement in an original and ever changing construction of reality. Bilingual Italian-English, translated by Lilly Sutherland.

 

About the Author:

FRANCESCA DONO was born in Reggio Calabria. After graduating with a major in the Social Sciences, she moved to Milan, where she lives and works. She wrote her first poem at the age of six and took up painting and photography at the age of 16. Both her art and poetry range from traditional to avant-garde. Her work has been published over the year in many of the magazines, anthologies and website of the Italian literary scene. These include Giorgio Linguaglossa's L'Ombra delle Parole Rivista [The Shadow of Words Review], Angelo Gaccione's Odissea [The Odyssey], Antonella Taravella's Word Social Forum and the 2017 Macabore Editore Primo almanacco di poesia al femminile [First Almanac of Women's Poetry]. Her poetry has won numerous awards, such as the Bruno Mancini, the Terra di Virgilio and La Stampa. Her art work has appeared in numerous catalogs, such as L'Elite for the years 2013 and 2014, Arte di Assisi [The Art of Assisi] and Artelis di Reggio Calabria [The Artelis of Reggio Calabria], both in 2015.


About the Translator:

Lilly Sutherlin was born Maria Carmela Arcidiacono in Reggio Calabria. She majored in Foreign Languages and Literatures at the Magisterium of the University of Messina and wrote her thesis on the poem "Summer" by the English poet James Thomson. She was a student of the poetess Maria Luisa Spaziani. In Italy she developed a passion for English, taught the language in middle and high schools and won a teaching competition. She has been living in America for 35 years. She currently resides in San Antonio, Texas, where she works as a training team manager for Sears Holding Corporation.

Reviews:

"Francesca Dono makes poetry like a smartphone takes a photo. Photometric precision. She has an original view of things, like a primitive on Easter Island. When you read her, you shudder, you can't make head or tail. She puts fragments in a little cup, shakes them up and what comes out is always different. It's all about bricolage and linguistic brigandage. There is a lightness and a commendable fragrance." ~ Giorgio Linguaglossa

"Reading the poetry of Dono is like being in a continuous short circuit. The scene of poets and children and saints is not the same that everyone sees. Or rather it is the same, but with cuts, changes of light, as if a lighthouse moved. Or like a crazy puppet moving, someone might say, who does not see the golden threads. Those who do not understand it get lost as a fly in vinegar." ~ Davide Rondoni


 



Poetess Franscesca Dono


Sample poems

From Six Degrees From the North Pole



there's still wind?

there's still wind? Again the anguish of the hooks behind
the fluttering curtains? Nothing will be able to be fixed
beyond the windows.

Instantly the whirlpools. The fine waves of the nerves. Are
you feeling indisposed sweetheart?

It would be better if you grasped all the shutters and all the
rocking vases up to the twine. The hyenas out there invite
us to their long lead claws.

No problem (darling). The blow will end sooner or later.
Did you take the pill? Did you drink the frosty powder?

Have your usual migraine and lower your head on the
plate. The food is getting cold.


in requiem

I am a needle. The watch of the
night says: a speck of emptiness.
Even the scorpion
entails something else in the darkenss
that is not yet.
Are you or am I the one who was killed?

Exact(ly) in silence. Tiny diatoms
underneath a hard and metallic quasar in requiem.
I see your razor image reflected. The curved mirror.

I am here.
I am God.
Say nothing.
I must eclipse.

Top of page


Catalog |About Us | Links | Order info