Biography
Guia Risari was born in 1971 in Milan, where she studied Classics and Philosophy at Università Statale with a final dissertation on Jean Améry and the concept of ressentment (Prof. F. Fergnani, Prof. D. Bigalli) and where she worked as an educationalist and a journalist for L’Unità.
She obtained an M.A. in Modern Jewish Studies at Leeds University where she carried on researches on Saadia, Maimonides, Mendelsohn, Rosenzweig, Lévinas, Jabès, Rawicz, Bauman, Rose, Lichtenberg Ettinger and where she wrote her final dissertation on Giorgio Bassani and italia antisemitism (Prof. G. Pollock, Prof. E. Frojmovič).
Later, she moved to France, where she spent ten years writing and carrying on researches in sociocriticism, history, oral literature and comparative migration literature. She collaborated with the C.E.R.S. of the Université Paul Valéry in Montpellier (Prof. E. Cross), L.L.A. of the Université Le Mirail in Toulouse (Prof. J.-F. Soulet), C.I.E.F. of La Sorbonne in Paris (Prof. J. Chevrier) and with the chaid of Letterature Comparate of La Sapienza in Rome (Prof. A. Gnisci).
She has dedicated lectures and articles to Levi, Améry and Benjamin published on QOL, Materiali di Estetica and Golem and held conferences in various universities on the Shoah literature and on the migrants literature.
She published two essays The Document Within the Walls. The Romance of Bassani on Giorgio Bassani and the myth of the "good italian" under the Fascist italian rule (Troubador Publishing, 2nd ed. 2004) and Jean Améry. Il risentimento come morale on the austrian writer and the concept of ressentment in the western philosophy (Franco Angeli, 2002; Premio “Il Viaggio Itinerante” 2002, Premio “Marengo d’oro” 2002, Premio del Parlamento Europeo “Anguillara Sabazia” 2002, “Premio Firenze” 2002, Premio “Parola di donna” 2003).
She has translated Respire by Anne-Sophie Brasme (Fayard 2001, Feltrinelli 2002, 2nd it. ed. Kowalski-Apogeo 2008), L’aîné des Orphelins by Tierno Monénembo (Seuil 2000, Feltrinelli 2003; Prix Tropiques 2000), Du Mercure sous la langue and La mer de la tranquillité by Sylvain Trudel (Les Allusifs 2001, Alet 2010).
She has translated and edited La Vie scélérate by Maryse Condé (Seghers 1987, E/0 2004; Prix Anäis-Ségalas de l’Académie Française 1988) and Le sang du ciel by Piotr Rawicz (Gallimard 1961, Giuntina 2006), a masterchief of postmodern Shoah literature.
For younger readers, she has translated and edited texts on poetry and ecology. We mention L’Afrique…petit Chaka by Marie Sellier and Marion Lesage (Réunion de Musées Nationaux 2000, L’Ippocampo 2005; Andersen Prize 2006, Prix Sorcières 2001), Les fables de La Fontaine (Seuil 2009, L'ippocampo 2010). You can save the planet by J. Wines and S. Horne (Edt-Giralangolo 2007), various books of the collection Paesi e Popoli del mondo by Edt-Giralangolo and many books by Ape Junior, Salani and Nord-Sud, amongst them Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by D. Benedictus (Nord-Sud 2009), a close following of the stories of Winnie-The-Pooh.
She's the author of many short stories, published in international magazins.
Among them, we point out Digestione (“Sagarana”, n. 2, 2001), Il segreto di Miguel la Lune (www.garzantilibri.it/articoli), 25 dicembre 1998 and Il vestito di Juanita (“Nuova Prosa”, n. 31, 2001), Diario di Milaidis De Los Angeles Casanova Carmina (Le Notti, Empirìa 2003; Ortese Award 2002), Le ore di Busan (Disarmonie, Comitato Internazionale 8 Marzo 2003, Award “Lune di Primavera” 2003), L’alieno (“Prospektiva”, n. 24, 2003; Award “Una lettera contro il razzismo” 2002), L’interprete (Donne Sommerse, Prospettiva 2003; Award “Ideadonna” 2003), Pecore in Terra Santa (“La luna di traverso”, n. 20, 2008), In quella strada, (“La nuova Palatina”, n. 2, 2009), La moglie di Barbablù (“La luna di traverso”, n. 27, 2010) and Quarto di luna (Miele e latte sotto la tua pelle, Compagnia delle lettere 2011).
For children she published Nino Mangialegno, (in Parole di legno, ill. T. Altan, Campanotto, 2002; awarded “Vileg novella dal Judri” 2002), Pane e Oro (ill. C. Mariniello, Panini, 2004), La macchina di Celestino (ill. C. Mariniello, Lapis, 2006), Aquiles el puntito (ill. M. Taeger, Kalandraka, 2006), Il Cavaliere che pestò la coda al drago (ill. I. Urbinati, Edt-Giralangolo 2008), La terre respire (ill. A. Sanna, Memo 2008), La filastrocca dei sei sensi, L'ode all'acciuga (in Le più belle filastrocche di tutti i tempi, Liberamente Editore 2009), La coda canterina (ill. V. Lopíz, Topipittori 2010), Gli occhiali fantastici (ill. S. Rea, Panini 2010) and
Amongst her poetic texts, Etoiles (Le 57, Premio “Festival” 2000), Quattro Stagioni (Annuario di poesia italiana 2003, A. Stango 2002), Nuit Palestinienne and J’ai vu (www.toulouse-palestine.org, gen. 2002), L’esule (Antologia del Premio Internazionale Città di Tocco da Casauria, Nobs 2003), Les Départs (“Poésie Première”, n. 30, 2004), Dudé (www.toulouse.cervantes.es, Premio “Don Quijote 2005”), Il sogno (I Fuochi, Bonechi 2003), L’editto (“Liberalia”, n. 4, 2006).
Amongst her surrealistic texts, Il pesce spada e la serratura. 100 ipotesi contro l’impossibile (ill. F. T. Altan, Beisler 2007) and L’alfabeto dimezzato (ill. C. Carrer, Beisler 2007).
She now writes for various publishers and magazines, while she leads creative laboratories