OUR
POETRY ARCHIVE FEATURED
POET
OF THE MONTH
CLAUDIA
PICCINNO
july 2017
OPA How long have you
been writing Poetry? We would like to know the early stories about your growing
up as a poet or writer in general. Who are your favorite Poets? What are some
of your favorite genres to read and to write? Had they inspired you a lot, do
you believe in inspiration as a guiding force behind writings at all?
CLAUDIA I have been writing poetry since I was 15
years old, but I never published my works before 2011. I was very jealous of my
intimate reflections; when I was teenager I loved Leopardi poems and my
schoolmates made fun of me because I had a melancholy vein, but I loved Dante
Alighieri and Montale too, after when I studied at University I discovered
Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Keats, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Mallarmè, lately I’ve read
all works of Szymborska that inspired me in my first collection “La sfinge e il
pierrot” and in “Potando l’euforbia”,
I’ve read something of Achmatova, Neruda, Puskin, Borges and I realized
how their writing has influenced my
soul. I love reading greek mithologic
tales and historical novels too. Anna Karenina for example, the heroine of War
and peace of Tolstoj inspired my poem “Stay there”.
OPA What has been the
toughest criticism given to you as a writer? What was the biggest compliment?
Did those change how or what you write?
What has been the strangest thing that a reader has asked you?
CLAUDIA Giorgio Barberi
Squarotti, a famous Italian literary critic wrote about me both a warning and a
compliment:
The poetry of Claudia Piccinno
alternates a lively and luminous lyrical contents to reflections and thoughts
of life with effective judgments about the actuality of the pain in history. If
there is a limit, it is the very private of his poetic discourse with the risk
of sentimental and romantic fullness.
He suggested me to read Goethe and Rilke
too, he died some months ago, but I’ll honour his suggestion soon. The
strangest thing a reader asked me was if, after The ceiling I was ready to write something about my cellar.
OPA What is your
favorite poem you have ever written? Compared to when you first started
writing, have you notice any big changes in your writing style or how you write
compared from then to now?
CLAUDIA I think any poem is sacre to the poet,
but the most awarded is “Davide is your
name”, it’s about a children affected with autism, it has been translated into
20 languages thanks to writers all over the world and I hope one day it can
become a book, whose incomes can help some no profits or onlus associations
dealing with special children. I think my writing style has changed compared to
my literary debut, life, study and reading improved it.
OPA What has been your favorite part of being a
poet or and author? What has been your least favorite?
CLAUDIA I prefer to be a poet, a poet can be a poet
even if he doesn’t publish his work, a poet needs also the space of words that
cannot be said, he needs sonority and silence at the same time and in an equal
amount. An author sometimes is slave of marketing logics and he loose his
judgment independence, the poet has a moral duty: to look for the truth.
OPA Did you get to quit your day job and become a
writer and or author or do you still have a day job and writing is something
you do for fun? If you still have a day job, what is it?
CLAUDIA I’m a teacher since I was 21, and I’ll always
be a learner too. The ancient latin poet Oratio said “Carmina non dant panem”,
which means Poetry doesn’t give a poet the bread, so we need to work to live. Anyway
I love my job; sometimes I become tired of bureaucracy and formal fulfillment
but I need young children in my daily routine. They help me to preserve my
amazement and enthusiasm.
OPA Besides writing and reading, what is your
most favorite thing to do? What genre are you most looking forward to explore
during your writing career? Why?
CLAUDIA I like travelling and walking, I think any
journey, even a trip can teach us something new. I love cats, I believe nature
is our first teacher. I’d like to become a storyteller because I’ve lots of
oral memories in my mind, when I was a child I used to sit at old people’s feet
and listen their tales. But I need peace and silence, free time and quiet to
sit and write.
OPA Do you think
literature or poetry is really essential in our life? If so why? How does it
relate to the general history of mankind?
CLAUDIA Literature and poetry are really a soul
therapy you know, In Italy some associations are trying to build literary
pharmacy, giving freely books to clochards, drug addicted, alcohol addicted,
prisoners. Someone else is promoting high voices reading in the hospitals for
example. Yes I think reading and writing is essential, furthermore in war times
we have had great poets and writer, I can think about Ungaretti, Levi, Svevo,
Anna Frank and many others.
OPA Our readers would like to know your own
personal experience regarding the importance of literature and poetry in your
life.
CLAUDIA When I
was a child I was fascinated by an enormous bookshelf in my great-grandfather’s
house, so I was an early reader. Books have always been my faithful friends in
my life, my ink wings to leave and land everywhere. Writing is my magic glass in the world.
OPA Do you think
people in general actually bother about literature in general? Do you think this consumerist world is
turning the average man away from serious literature?
CLAUDIA Yes I fear so, the average man often prefer
to buy the last item of mobile phone, rather than a book. In Italy
OPA Do you think
society, as a whole, has a factor in shaping you as a poet, or your poetry
altogether?
CLAUDIA Neruda and Quasimodo taught me the role of a
poet was to sow doubts and questions, poetry can make a new man, creativity is
a basic ingredient to make a whole man. So I’ve never been indifferent to this
society.
A Serbian critic and poetess
Milica Lilic writes about my poems: “What
comes out from its "rails in verse" is a meaningful world that arises
from reflection from the logos, from the conscious and creative effort that
overcomes the fragmentation of the creatures, the alienation of the nations,
the moral depravity, the hypocrisy, the loneliness of the individual in front
of the screen, the fear of this "civilization" that ignores the
feelings, the pain, the intimate tragedy and the civil rights.
Alone,
without love and compassion, the man is helpless and defenseless, Claudia calls
for a new time made for sharing, real contact with others and with life. In the
absence of the authenticity the poetess draws on the myth to survive the drama
of urban chaos”.
OPA We would also like to know; How do you relate
the present literary trends with the literary heritage of your own country?
CLAUDIA The father of Italian literature Dante
Alighieri, in the 13th century with his book “The Divine Comedy”
brought about a sort of globalization because none before him had never tried
to write in “volgare”, the language spoken by all social classes, but never
written until then. That was a great achievement, because it made easier for
the masses to study in vulgar. Today globalization has increased the
availability of information, but sometimes it happens at the expense of quality
and depth. Paradoxically in Italy
OPA Are you a
feminist? Can literature play any decisive role in feminism at all?
CLAUDIA I believe it’s necessary to ensure equal
opportunities between the sexes, that should mean a complementary path where
any abuse is forbidden. Literature can play a decisive role in any extremism, I
think.
OPA Do you believe
that all writers are by and large the product of their nationality? Is it an
incentive or an obstacle in becoming an international writer?
CLAUDIA All writers are the product of their cultural
or intimistic experiences which do not
always depend on nationality. For me it’s a great incentive the comparison with
writers from all over the world. On November 2016, I was a honor guest at a
poetry festival in Istanbul and I met poetess from Greece, from Serbia, from
Iraq… we instantly felt sisters in poetry and we discovered so much affinity
among us and our mores.
OPA What 7 words
would you use to describe yourself?
CLAUDIA Self supporting, impulsive, sociable, ironic,
gipsy, passionate, cheerful.
OPA Is there anything else that you would like
to share or say to those who will read this interview?
CLAUDIA Our Poetry
Archive is for me like a huge box of wonders, it makes me happy. Thanks
to the editorial board for this chance
to learn and grow.
CLAUDIA PICCINNO: Scholastic referent land for education at reading. She
has received awards in major national and international competitions of poetry,
including an honor mention in the Paris
1st Word Literary Prize and a 3rd prize in Lugano, Switzerland, 3rd prize in
Albania; She has been the first italian poetess to be awarded with The Stelae
of Rosetta, World Literary Prize in Istanbul on November 2016. She will be conferred with the
most prestigious award “World icon for peace” for Wip in Ondo city, Nigeria, on
April 2017 . Her poem "In Blue" is
played on a majolica stele posted on the seafront in Santa Caterina di Nardo
(Le).Last June 2016, she was art director in an art & poetry international
exhibition called June in Italy. She is italian editor for the international
literary magazine Rosetta World Literatura in Turkey and for Atunis Magazine in Albania.She has also
written numerous reviews and critical essays or prefacess about other poets’books.She
has traslated from English into italian lots of authors.She has published“La
sfinge e il pierrot”, Aletti Editore, 2011,“Potando l’euforbia” in Transiti
Diversi, Rupe Mutevole Edizioni, 2012,“Il soffitto, cortometraggi d’altrove”,
La Lettera Scarlatta Edizioni, 2013,With english version also “Il soffitto,
cortometraggi d’altrove” La Lettera Scarlatta Edizioni maggio 2014, in serbian
“Tabahnha” ed.Majdah luglio 2014.“Ragnatele Cremisi”- La Lettera Scarlatta
Edizioni, settembre 2015Tavan Baska Yerlerdeki Kisa Filmier,Artshop, Istanbul
2016
The
editorial staff of this project: Deborah Brooks Langford, Stacia Lynn Reynolds;
sincerely thank you for your time and hope we shall have your continued
support.
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