Nanni Cagnone

Nanni Cagnone
Nanni Cagnone in Genoa (2001), photograph by Pino Usicco
Born	10 April 1939(1939-04-10) Carcare, Liguria
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	Italian
Genres	Poetry, Drama, Short story, Novel, Essay

Nanni Cagnone^[1] (born in 1939 in Carcare, Liguria) is an Italian poet, novelist, essayist and playwright. He debuted as a poet in 1954, and since then has written several books, mostly poetry but also plays and novels, theoretical essays and aphorisms, from The Disabled Youth (1967) to The Oslo Lecture^[2] (2008). He is married to Sandra Holt, and currently lives in Bomarzo.

Biography

In the Sixties-Seventies he was senior editor of Lerici Publisher, Editor of Marcatré (an avant-garde magazine for art, literature, music) and managing editor of Design Italia, and more recently founded and headed the Italian publishing house Coliseum. He was also professor of aesthetics, and has contributed articles to newspapers and cultural magazines, among them Chelsea Review, Incognita, Alea, Or, Il Giornale, Il Messaggero, Bonniers Litterära Magasin, Il Verri. His translations include Gerard Manley Hopkins’ The Wreck of the Deutschland, and Aeschylus’ Agamemnon.^[3]

Cagnone’s works are characterized by a clean, almost purist meditation, where mythology and modernity, feeling and criticism are compressed into a peculiar and intense ontological recovery. Cagnone is said to be one of the most innovative and distinctive poets of contemporary European literature.^[4] His poems are used as lyrics and inspiration for contemporary music. The Norwegian composer Harald Sæther has written a song cycle with lyrics from Index Vacuus, the cantata Obstupescit Venti Cinque with lyrics from What’s Hecuba to Him or He to Hecuba? and A, in altre parole B, for three vocal quartets, by the poem with the same title.

About his own poetry, Cagnone writes: “Poetry is this interval between us and things, this interrupted feeling, the lost object in the home of desire. Poetry is an extraneous work, something sleep would teach awakening. It demands a passive feeling, a receptive thought and desires learnt by answering. Poetry is not the act of collecting the world like a rescuer of sense or a flatterer of language, but the aimless cult of an excessive figure and the experience of a faithfulness: that of a Saying, which doesn’t want to leave his Silent lover. Poetry is acting beyond, beyond what one manages to think”.

Bibliography

• A, in altre parole B, an essay on painting (Genoa 1970)
• What’s Hecuba to Him or He to Hecuba?, poems and essays (New York 1975)
• Andatura, poetry (Milan 1979)
• L’arto fantasma, essays (ed.) (Venice 1979)
• Vaticinio, a poem (Naples 1984)
• Notturno sopra il giorno, poetry (Milan 1985)
• Armi senza insegne, poetry (Milan 1988)
• G.M. Hopkins: Il naufragio del Deutschland (ed.) (Milan 1988)
• Comuni smarrimenti, a novel (Milan 1990)
• Anima del vuoto, poetry (Bari 1993)
• Avvento, poetry (Bari 1995)
• The Book of Giving Back,^[5] a poem (New York 1998)
• Il popolo delle cose, a poem (Milan 1999)
• Enter Balthâzar, a short story (New York 2000)
• Pacific Time, a novel (Milan 2001)
• Doveri dell’esilio, poetry (Pavia 2002)
• Questo posto va bene per guardare il tramonto, a play (Pavia 2002)
• L’oro guarda l’argento,^[6] selected works (Verona 2003)
• Index Vacuus,^[7] poetry (New York 2004)
• Ça mérite un détour, a short story (Milan 2007)
• Penombra, a short story (Rome 2009)
• Aeschylus: Agamemnon (ed.) (Modena 2010)
• Undeniable Things, poetry (Modena 2010)

References

1. ^ Italian poetry 1950 - 1990 Nanni Cagnone. http://books.google.no/books?id=TYf_WmVf75IC&pg=PA220&lpg=PA220&dq=&source=bl&ots=fgoomMBfE9&sig=V93SpY-h0J0A7Af14fsmE2QD9Y0#v=onepage&q&f=false Italian poetry 1950 - 1990. 
2. ^ The Oslo Lecture 2008 "Nanni Cagnone". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmRqH2C8FRk The Oslo Lecture 2008. 
3. ^ Il sole 24 ore "Nanni Cagnone". http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/cultura/2011-01-30/eschilo-risentire-voce-tragica-082221.shtml?uuid=AaJhxI4C&fromSearch Il sole 24 ore. 
4. ^ Nanni Cagnone in Oslo Poesifestival 2008, "Nanni Cagnone". http://www.oslopoesi.no/2008/deltakere/cagnone.html Nanni Cagnone in Oslo Poesifestival 2008,. 
5. ^ Il Corriere della Sera Archivio 1998 "Nanni Cagnone". http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1998/aprile/21/Cagnone_metafisico_che_ama_John_co_0_980421463.shtml Il Corriere della Sera Archivio 1998. 
6. ^ Anterem, "Nanni Cagnone". http://www.anteremedizioni.it/nanni_cagnone_da_l_oro_guarda_l_argento_con_saggi_di_paolo_aita_ed_enrico_cerasi Anterem,. 
7. ^ Edgewise Press "Nanni Cagnone". http://www.edgewisepress.com/EP17cagnoneindex.html Edgewise Press. 

External links

• Nanni Cagnone’s official website
• Cagnone at Forlaget Oktober

Literature portal

Persondata
Name	Cagnone, Nanni
Alternative names
Short description	Poet and writer
Date of birth	10 April 1939
Place of birth	Carcare, Liguria, Italy
Date of death
Place of death