Nanni Balestrini

Nanni Balestrini
Born	July 2, 1935 Milan, Lombardy, Italy

Nanni Balestrini (2 July 1935) is an Italian experimental poet, author and visual artist of the Neoavanguardia movement.

Context

Nanni Balestrini is associated with the Italian writers movement Neoavanguardia. He wrote for the magazine Il Verri, co-directed Alfabeta and was one of the Italian writers publishing 1961 in the anthology I Novissimi. During the 1960s, the group was growing and becoming the Gruppo 63, Balestrini was the editor of their publications. From 1962 to 1972, he was working for Feltrinelli, cooperating with the Marsilio publishers and editing some issues of the Cooperativa Scrittori.

Balestrini's political activities are also noteworthy: in 1968, he was co-founder of the group Potere operaio, in 1976 an important supporter of the Autonomia. In 1979, he was accused of membership in the guerilla and fled to Paris and later Germany.

Balestrini got known by a larger public thanks to his first novel in the beginning of the 1970s We Want Everything. It describes the struggles and conflicts in the car factory of FIAT. In the following years, the social movements of his time continued to be his subject. With the book The Unseen, he created a literary monument for the "Generation of 1977". On the one hand, it shows the enormous atmosphere of change during this years, concretising in house occupations, the creation of free radios and more, but on the other, it shows as well the enormous repression by the state against these movements. Other important works are I Furiosi, dedicated to the football supporters culture of the AC Milan, and The Editor, dealing with Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. Especially in his novel The Golden Horde, co-written with Primo Moroni, his proximity to operaism is obvious. His last novel Sandokan is dealing with the Camorra in Casal di Principe.

Publications

English

• Lawrence R. Smith (ed.), The New Italian Poetry, 1945 to the Present, University of California Press, 1981.
• The Unseen, Verso Books, London, 1989.
• Sandokan, Melville House Publishing, Hoboken (N.J.), 2009.
• Two Short Stories: Let a Thousand Hands Reach Out to Pick Up The Gun, FIAT, Bandit Press & Shortfuse Press, 2010.

Italian

Poetry

• Come si agisce, Feltrinelli, 1963.
• Ma noi facciamone un'altra, Feltrinelli, 1966.
• Poesie pratiche, antologia 1954-1969, Einaudi, 1976.
• Le ballate della signorina Richmond, Coop. Scrittori, 1977.
• Blackout, DeriveApprodi, 2009 [2001].
• Ipocalisse, Scheiwiller, 1986.
• Il ritorno della signorina Richmond, Becco giallo, 1987.
• Osservazioni sul volo degli uccelli, poesie 1954-56, Scheiwiller, 1988.
• Il pubblico del labirinto, Scheiwiller, 1992.
• Estremi rimedi, Manni, 1995.
• Le avventure complete della signorina Richmond, Testo&Immagine, 1999.
• Elettra, Luca Sossella, 2001.
• Tutto in una volta, antologia 1954-2003, Edizioni del Leone, 2003.
• Sfinimondo, Bibliopolis, 2003.
• Sconnessioni, Rome, Fermenti, 2008.
• Blackout e altro, Rome, Deriveapprodi, 2009.
• Lo sventramento della storia, Rome, Polìmata, 2009.

Novels

• Tristano, DeriveApprodi, 2007 [1964].
• Vogliamo tutto, DeriveApprodi, 2004 [1971].
• La violenza illustrata, DeriveApprodi, 2001 [1976].
• Gli invisibili, DeriveApprodi, 2005 [1987].
• L'editore, DeriveApprodi, 2006 [1989].
• I furiosi, DeriveApprodi, 2004 [1994].
• Una mattina ci siam svegliati, Baldini & Castoldi, 1995.
• La Grande Rivolta, Bompiani, 1999.
• Sandokan, storia di camorra, Einaudi, 2004.

Short stories

• Disposta l'autopsia dell'anarchico morto dopo i violenti scontri di Pisa in: Paola Staccioli, In ordine pubblico, Rom, 2002, S. 25-31.

Various

• Gruppo 63, L'Antologia, (mit Alfredo Giuliani), Testo&Immagine, 2002 [1964].
• Gruppo 63. Il romanzo sperimentale, Feltrinelli, 1965.
• L'Opera di Pechino, (mit Letizia Paolozzi), Feltrinelli, 1966.
• L'orda d'oro, (mit Primo Moroni), Sugarco, 1988; Feltrinelli, 1997, 2003.
• Parma 1922, DeriveApprodi, 2002.

External links

• Neoavanguardia

References

• Personal website

Persondata
Name	Balestrini, Nanni
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	July 2, 1935
Place of birth	Milan, Lombardy, Italy
Date of death
Place of death