Silvio Raffo is an Italian

Italian people

The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

 writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 and translator. He's the most prolific translator of English and American women writers from English to Italian. A screen adaptation of his 1996 novel "Voice From The Stone" will be directed by Eric Howell.

Life and career

Silvio Raffo was born in Rome, Italy, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. He graduated from the Università Cattolica with a thesis on Latin language. From 1986 he has been the president of the literary club "La Piccola Fenice". A poet, writer and translator, he has lectured in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Switzlerland and Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 and is visiting professor in London.
He was shortlisted for the Premio Strega 1997 for his novel "La Voce Della Pietra", and has won several poetry prizes, including the "Premio Gozzano", "Premio Cardarelli", "Premio Montale", "Premio Ada Negri", "Premio Jean Vigo":
He has long since contributed to the leading Italian publishing house Mondadori as a translator and essayist. For Mondadori he translated into Italian Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...

's works, for which he is best known. He currently lives in Varese.

Poet

He published his first poetry collection in 1976, followed by many others, notably "Lampi Della Visione" and "L'Equilibrio Terrestre", both for Crocetti Editore. His work was phraised, among others, by the Noble Prize candidate poet Maria Luisa Spaziani

Maria Luisa Spaziani

Maria Luisa Spaziani is an Italian poet.She was born in Turin in 1924. At nineteen, Spaziani founded the review Il dado, working with collaborators such as Vasco Pratolini, Sandro Penna and Vincenzo Ciaffi. Virginia Woolf sent her a chapter of her novel The Waves, autographed to Alla piccola...

Novelist

A prolific novelist, he has published eight novels, among which are La Voce Della Pietra (Voice From the Stone, 1996), shortlisted for the Premio Strega in 1997, and Virginio, both published by Il Saggiatore. When it first came out, Voice From the Stone was greatly praised by the English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 novelist Muriel Spark

Muriel Spark

Dame Muriel Spark, DBE was an award-winning Scottish novelist. In 2008 The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945".-Early life:...

.

Translator and Essayst

To date, he is the most prolific translator of English women writers, having so far translated works by Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...

, Christina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems...

, Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and was known for her activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work...

, Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë

Emily Jane Brontë 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. Emily was the third eldest of the four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother...

, Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....

, and Sara Teasdale

Sara Teasdale

Sara Teasdale , was an American lyrical poet. She was born Sara Trevor Teasdale in St. Louis, Missouri, and after her marriage in 1914 she went by the name Sara Teasdale Filsinger.-Biography:...

, who he first translated and had published in Italy. The result of his many years' studies on Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...

, he published in 2009 the essay "La Sposa del Terrore" (The Terror's Bride). A new biography of the poet of Amherst

Amherst

- Higher education :*Amherst College, in Amherst, Massachusetts*University of Massachusetts Amherst- People :* Baron Amherst , in particular:** Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, 18th century British army officer...

 is going to be published in 2011.

The Premio Guido Morselli

In 2008, in Varese

Varese

Varese is a town and comune in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 55 km north of Milan.It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or urban part of the city is called Varesotto.- Geography :...

, together with professor and researcher Ms Linda Terziroli, he established the "Premio Guido Morselli", both a literary award and a series of conferences concerning the work of Guido Morselli

Guido Morselli

-Life:Guido Morselli was born in Bologna, the second son of a well-to-do family belonging to Bolognese bourgeoisie. Giovanni, his father, was a manager of Carlo Erba, a pharmaceutical firm, while his mother, Olga Vincenzi, was the daughter of one of the most prestigious lawyers in Bologna. The...

, a writer whose novels were published only after his suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 in 1974.

"Voice From the Stone" and Hollywood

In 2010, a screen adaption of his 1997 novel, "Voice From the Stone", was announced. The novel was adapted for the screen by Mark Wheaton and will be produced by Dean Zanuck and Stefano Gallini. According to the website Imdb, the film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 originally had Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 cult movie director Hideo Nakata

Hideo Nakata

Hideo Nakata is a Japanese filmmaker.-Life and career:Nakata was born in Okayama, Japan. He is most familiar to Western audiences for his work on Japanese horror films such as Ring , Ring 2 and Dark Water...

 set to direct until Eric Howell, director of Academy Award 2010

83rd Academy Awards

The 83rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2010 and took place February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, Academy Awards ...

 shortlisted film Ana's Playground, took over the helm.

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Margaret Ruth "Maggie" Gyllenhaal born November 16, 1977) is an American actress. She is the daughter of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal. She made her screen debut when she began to appear in her father's films...

 will star in the supernatural thriller.

Poetry

• "Lampi Della Visione", Crocetti Editore, 1988
• "L'Equilibrio Terrestre", Crocetti Editore, 1992
• "Maternale", Nem, 2007

Novels

• "Lo Specchio Attento", Edizioni Studio Tesi, 1987
• "La Voce Della Pietra" Voice From the Stone, Il Saggiatore, 1996
• "Virginio", Il Saggiatore, 1997
• "Eros Degli Inganni", Bietti, 2010

Translations

• "Oscar Wilde: Tutti i racconti", Newton & Compton, 1997
• "Emily Dickinson: tutte le poesie", Meridiani Mondadori, 1999
• "Christina Rossetti: Nostalgia del cielo", Le Lettere, 2001
• "Brontë: poesie", Mondadori, 2004

Essays

• "Donna, mistero senza fine bello", T.E. Newton, 1994
• "Poesia", Zanichelli, 2001
• "La Sposa del terrore", Hermaion, Book Editore, 2009
• "Io sono nessuno", Le Lettere, 2011