












































Delos Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. v–viii. Copyright © 2024 University of Florida Press. 
doi: 10.5744/delos.2024.1001

Preface

We are delighted to introduce the latest issue of Delos, with Gabriele Bel-
letti stepping in as the new Editor- in- Chief. This transition ensures conti-
nuity, as Benjamin Hebblethwaite, our former Editor- in- Chief, will remain 
as Coeditor, bringing his dedication and infectious enthusiasm to the role. 
Our journal continues to blend academic rigor with a welcoming spirit of 
innovation. This rigor is maintained through double peer- reviewed contri-
butions, complemented by comprehensive introductions and critical analy-
ses and thanks to teamwork in collaboration with the Managing Editor, 
Richard Gray, the Journals Manager Lauren Phillips, and the entire Univer-
sity of Florida Press. Innovation is reflected in our embrace of diverse cul-
tures and languages, as well as various modes of translation across poetry, 
prose, and other artistic forms, fostering a welcoming attitude towards dif-
ferent perspectives.

The quality of this publication also builds upon the enrichment of the  
Editorial Board with its new members, Associate Professors Silvia Valisa 
from Florida State University and Linxin Liang from Huazhong University 
of Science and Technology. Silvia Valisa, an accomplished scholar, transla-
tor, and poet, is well- versed in Italian literature, photography, journalism, 
and digital humanities. She has translated poetry into both Italian and Eng-
lish and is currently studying the impact of the Milan- based publisher Sonzo-
gno on Italian culture. Linxin Liang specializes in translation and intercultural 
studies, with numerous publications in prestigious international journals and 
two authored monographs. We are also pleased to feature in this volume the 
first contributions from our new editors for book and film reviews, Pasquale 
Verdicchio and Sylvie Blum- Reid. In this edition, thanks to their care, we 
present James McCorkle’s review of Rae Armantrout’s collection Notice 
(Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2024) and Gianluca Rizzo’s review 
of Lorenzo Mari’s Cancellation, translated by Paul Vangelisti (Los Angeles 
and Bagnone: Magra Books, 2023).

As our readers know, in the previous edition, Delos initiated a call inviting 
authors and translators to submit literary texts translated into English, along 
with analyses, commentaries, and essays on specific themes for future editions. 
These themes included Environmental Literature, Literature and Migration, 



vi    Preface

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Translation versus Human Translation, 
Contemporary Poetry, and Dialects in Translation (please refer to the previous 
edition for the full call). The response was overwhelmingly positive and 
diverse, particularly in poetry, starting with Italian poetry. This Delos issue, in 
fact, features three translations of contemporary Italian poetry: La sorella 
dell’Ave (Two Sisters, 1992) by Ludovica Ripa di Meana, translated by Silvia 
Valisa and Jessica Beasley; three poems by Mariano Bàino, translated by 
Gianluca Rizzo and Dominic Siracusa; and a selection from A sciame (In 
Swarm, 2023) by Maria Grazia Insinga, translated by Marco Nicosia. Addi-
tionally, this edition includes poetic translations from two other European 
languages— French and Polish: Timothy Perry’s translations of French chan-
sons de toile (weaving songs) and Piotr Gwiazda’s translations of poems by 
Grzegorz Wróblewski.

Continuing our focus on poetry, we publish an essay on translating from 
German to Italian by Anna Maria Carpi, translated by Lisa Mulleneaux, and 
a reflection on the mistranslations of Rumi’s poetry into English by Abeer 
Piracha. For what concerns prose, this issue also features Reinaldo Cabrera 
Perez’s translation of an excerpt from Dara Dontsova’s Russian novel 
Вакантное место райской птички (The Empty Nest of a Bird of Paradise) 
and a reflection by Susan Caperna Lloyd on the novel Gjenerali i ushtrisë së 
vdekur (The General of the Dead Army) by Albanian writer Ismail Kadare— 
in memoriam, he was a great author who recently passed away.

We are also pleased to announce that, starting with this edition, each 
release of Delos will feature artworks from contemporary artists. Selected 
by the editorial team, these artworks will explore the theme of translation in 
various ways and from different perspectives. Special editions may also 
focus on other themes and will be announced through specific calls for sub-
missions. All forms of art are welcome (photography, paintings, digital art, 
etc.), as long as they can be reproduced in black- and- white print format. Art-
ists may submit up to five artworks (in TIFF or PDF format) to editors Gabri-
ele Belletti (g . belletti@ufl . edu) and/or Benjamin Hebblethwaite (hebble@ufl 
. edu), granting permission for reproduction in the journal, accompanied by a 
brief biography. Selected artists will be contacted by the editorial team. The 
first featured works in this edition are four couplets from the series  Didascalie 
(Captions, 2022– 2023) by the artist Alessandro Morino and the poet Ivan 
Schiavone, with lyrics translated from Italian by Gianluca Rizzo and 
 Dominic Siracusa.

Finally, we want to announce in advance, given the response to the call 
regarding Environmental Humanities and the growing relevance of poetry 

mailto://g.belletti@ufl.edu
mailto://hebble@ufl.edu
mailto://hebble@ufl.edu


Preface    vii

focused on ecological themes, that next year we plan a special issue dedicated 
to Italian poetry that is close to ecological concerns, a topic for which there is 
not yet a comprehensive anthology in English.

Gabriele Belletti, Benjamin Hebblethwaite, and Richard Gray




