Tales for Every Age: A Conversation about Gianni Rodari
Grazia Giotti
PRESIDENT
Official Committee for Gianni Rodari’s Centenary (Italy)
Antony Shugaar
TRANSLATOR
Valerio Vidali
ILLUSTRATOR
Tuesday, November 24 | 4:00 PM EST
ZOOM WEBINAR | PRESENTED IN ENGLISH
To continue our celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the birth of Gianni Rodari, Italy’s most beloved children’s author, join us for a conversation with Grazia Gotti, President of the Italian official committee for Gianni Rodari’s centenary, translator Antony Shugaar and illustrator Valerio Vidali.
The panel will discuss the relationship between word and picture and explain the challenge, joy, and provocation in translating and illustrating the work of such an influential and iconic figure like Rodari.
Gianni Rodari (1920-1980) is known for his love of wordplay, nonsense, and for looking at social justice and equality issues with a fresh, playful perspective. His works for children are wildly inventive, sometimes funny, sometimes surreal, but always profound and timely. Grazia Gotti graduated in Education Studies from the Bologna Alma Mater Studiorum in 1983. After her studies, with a group of kindergarten and primary school teachers and educators, she co-founded the Cooperativa Culturale Giannino Stoppani, which runs an independent children’s bookstore and organizes book illustration exhibits, as well as training courses for teachers, educators, and booksellers.
This event is organized by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Washington, DC in collaboration with Enchanted Lion and is co-presented with the Italian Cultural Institutes of Chicago, Montreal, Los Angeles, New York, Toronto and San Francisco.
GRAZIA GOTTI
Grazia Gotti graduated in Education Studies from the Bologna Alma Mater Studiorum in 1983. After her studies, with a group of kindergarten and primary school teachers and educators, she co-founded the Cooperativa Culturale Giannino Stoppani, which runs an independent children’s bookstore and organizes book illustration exhibits, as well as training courses for teachers, educators, and booksellers.
Grazia Gotti currently works closely with national and international publishers, sourcing the very best books, authors, artists, and illustrators, as well as curating new book series. She also runs her own publishing house. She has been a member of the Board of Education of the Accademia Drosselmeier, a study centre for research and training school for teachers, educators, librarians, and booksellers since 2003.
She published several books: A scuola con i libri. Avventure di una libraia-maestra (Rizzoli, 2013), Ne ho vedute tante da raccontar. Crescere con i libri (Giunti Editore, 2015), 21 donne all’Assemblea (Bompiani, 2016). She then published her first picture book Europa, illustrated by Greek artist Daniela Stamatiadi (Edizioni Primavera, 2019), followed by La biblioteca dei saperi, a bibliographical essay about non-fiction children’s books (Edizioni Lapis, 2020,) and Fellini, (Edizioni Primavera, 2020). Grazia Gotti is also an external advisor for the Bologna Children’s Bookfair.
ANTONY SHUGAAR
Antony Shugaar is a translator and writer. He is the translator of Enchanted Lion’s edition of Gianni Rodari’s Telephone Tales. Among his recent translations, winners of the Italian Strega Prize for 2011 (Story of My People, Edoardo Nesi, Other Press), 2013 (Resistance Is Futile, Walter Siti, Rizzoli), 2015 (Ferocity, Nicola Lagioia, Europa), and 2016 (The Catholic School, Edoardo Albinati). He translated two books by Primo Levi for the Norton Complete Works (2015): Other People’s Trades, and If Not Now, When? He was shortlisted for the 2016 PEN Translation Prize for Viola Di Grado’s Hollow Heart. He received a 2007 NEA translation fellowship for his translation of Nanni Balestrini’s Sandokan. He has translated extensively from the French and the Italian for the New York Review of Books and the New York Times. He translates screenplays and translated six of the ten episodes of the first season of Paolo Sorrentino’s The Young Pope.
VALERIO VIDALI
Valerio Vidali is an Italian illustrator and picture book author, whose work has received numerous recognitions. He is the illustrator for the Enchanted Lion’s edition of Gianni Rodari’s iconic Telephone Tales. His books, The Forest and Jemmy Button (Enchanted Lion) were New York Times’ “Best Illustrated Books” for 2018 and 2013.
His work also received the Grand Prix of ILUSTRARTE, the International Biennial of Children’s Book Illustration; the CJ Picture Book Award; as well as honours by the American Society of Illustrators and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Valerio currently lives and works in Porto, Portugal.