Irene Santori (1973) was born and lives in Rome. She is a poet, novelist, translator and essayist, she graduated in Philosophy from the University of La Sapienza in Rome with a thesis in French Language and Literature on: Inganno, autoinganno e disinganno nel teatro tragico di Jean Racine – Deception, self-deception and disenchantment in the tragic theatre of Jean Racine. After specialising in Literary Translation at La Sapienza, she completed her research with the publication of racinian essays and the volume Jean Racine. Sacred poems: Cantiques Spirituels e Hymnes traduites du Bréviaire romain – Spiritual Songs and Hymns translated from the Roman Breviary, introduction, translation, and commentary (Olschki, 2008). She has published the poetic collections: In tempo e disparte – On time and apart (Gazebo 2006), Hotel Dieu, (Empiria 2016, Lorenzo Montano Prize, published work, 2018), Il Libro dei Liquidi – The Book of Liquids (Aragno, Parallela series, 2021, finalist, albeit in unfinished form, at the Pagliarani prize unpublished work, 2017).
She manages on behalf of Nino Aragno Editore, the Bilingual Series of Poetry Parallela of which this last publication is the act of birth, and Parallela Album (an out of format designed for the encounter between poetic texts and visual art), both conceived during a long period of stay in China, as a Resident Poet at Sun Yat Sen University in Canton, in the autumn of 2019.
She has published the novel Tah’eb, with an afterword by Maria Grazia Calandrone.
She is the author and host of Radio3 Rai: (Uomini e profeti-Storie, Vite che non sono la tua, Men and Prophets Stories, Lives that are not yours, Wikiradio, Le Meraviglie) and Radio Svizzera Italiana - Swiss Italian radio (Laser).
In 2002, the crucial meeting with Vasco Bendini, the Italian master of the informal art (Bologna 1922-Rome 2015) began with a deep partnership, between collecting, communion of intent and vision, culminating in the Presidency of the Vasco Bendini Archive, a position with which Santori is succeeded to Marcella Valentini Bendini in the protection of the memory of the historical artist, promoting his work at a national and international level.
She has published essays on contemporary art criticism. Her poetic texts are translated into English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Chinese (translated by Yang Lian).
Santori is currently engaged in the translation from French of the poems that the great Michel Deguy (Goncourt Prize 2020) personally entrusted to her before dying, so that she could translate them for Parallela.
