Giovanni Parrini

Headshot of the poet

Photo courtesy of the poet

Giovanni Parrini (he/him) is the author of five poetry books: Nel viaggio (Lietocolle, 2006); Tra segni e sogni (Manni, 2006); Nell’oltre delle cose (Interlinea, 2011); Valichi (Moretti&Vitali, 2015), which won both the Pisa Prize and the Viareggio-Giuria Prize in 2015; and L’occasione e l’oblio, (Stampa 2009, 2019), which was a 2020 finalist for the Viareggio Prize.

He edited the first Italian translation of the collected poems of Thomas Gray. The volume, which includes an extended apparatus of critical and explanatory notes, was published by Le Lettere in 2022. A few years earlier, in 2019, Parrini also published translations of Tracy K. Smith with the literary journal Nuovi Argomenti.

Parrini was born and raised in Florence, Italy, and he attended five years of classical humanities courses throughout high school. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Florence University, and he has been teaching high school students for 22 years.