Born in Modena, 23/03/1955
Tel 348 290 0224
e-mail alberto.bertoni@unibo.it
From January 2016 he is Full professor of Contemporary Italian Literature. He teaches Contemporary Italian Literature (BA) and Nineteenth Century Italian Poetry (MA) at the Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies (FICLIT) of the University of Bologna.
In 1979 he graduated with full honours in Modern Italian Literature with professor Ezio Raimondi as his supervisor. The thesis was about “Gian Pietro Lucini and Symbolism”. In 1987 he obtained the doctorate in Italian studies with a thesis on Italian Free verse. After that he worked in Italian High schools teaching Italian and History from 1987 to 1993.
In 1993 he obtained a position of junior lecturer of Italian Literature at the Department of Italian Studies of the University of Bologna. In 1996 he was confirmed in his position and started teaching Modern Italian Literature. In 1994 and 1996 he was Visiting professor at the Department of Italian of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, he has also been invited to Yale University (New Haven) and Columbia University in New York (he still cohoperates with this University and with prof. Paolo Valesio, who works there). He takes part in numerous and prestigious conferences in Italy and abroad as key note speaker.
From 1999 to 2011 he taught ‘Mother Tongue (Italian)’ at the Faculty of Education Sciences of the University of Bolzano, Bressanone Branch. He was a close cooperator of professor Ezio Raimondi. In 2007 he was appointed President of the Regional Board for the admission to the Specializing School for High School Teachers of the Region Emilia Romagna.
His areas of interest are Italian contemporary versification, poetry and narrative. He has published several reviews and articles for specialized journals such as “Lingua e Stile”, “il Verri”, “Intersezioni”, “Lettere italiane”, “Filologia e critica”, “L'immaginazione”. He has also published articles in proceedings of Conferences and books, among which the volumes Mappe della letteratura europea e mediterranea (edited by G.M. Anselmi, Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2001). In particular for the third volume, Da Gogol' al Postmoderno, he has written two huge articles about Italian and European literature after Auschwitz and the theoretical and socio-typological approach to poetry written in local Italian dialects. A follow up of the first article is the volume Una questione finale. Poesia e pensiero da Auschwitz, Book Editore, Riva del PO (FE) 2020. He has also written many prefaces, afterwards and back covers for books of fiction, poetry and literary criticism.
In 1987 he edited Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s Taccuini 1915-1921 for the publisher Il Mulino. In 1989 he cooperated to the collective volumes of Italian Literature fo the publisher Einaudi under the direction of Alberto Asor Rosa. In particular, together with Gian Mario Anselmi he wrote a chapter L'Emilia e la Romagna, devoted to the Literary history and geography of Italian literature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
In 2010 he edited the critical edition of the novels by Alberto Bevilaqua in the prestigious series “Meridiani” for the publisher Mondadori. In 2013 he edited the collection of Pier Luigi Bacchini’s Poems for the series Oscar Poesia Mondadori. For the same series in 2001 and 2016 he wrote a preface for the Complete Poems by Maurizio Cucchi.
He has written several books: Dai simbolisti al Novecento. Le origini del verso libero italiano (il Mulino, Bologna 1995, awarded the Prize Russo and the Prize Croce 1996 for literary criticism); Una geografia letteraria tra Emilia e Romagna (CLUEB, Bologna 1997, written together with Gian Mario Anselmi); Partiture critiche (Pacini, Pisa 2000); Una distratta venerazione. La poesia metrica di Giudici (Book Editore, Castel Maggiore 2001, awarded the Prize Antonio Sebastiani 2002 for literary criticism); Il sosia di Providence e altri incontri fra l'Emilia e l'America (Diabasis, Reggio Emilia 2002); Montale vs. Ungaretti (Carocci, Roma 2003, written together with Jonathan Sisco); La poesia. Come si legge e come si scrive (il Mulino, Bologna 2006); the Anthology Trent'anni di Novecento. Libri italiani di poesia e dintorni (1971-2000) (Book Editore, Castel Maggiore, BO, 2005); the autobiography written together with Francesco Guccini Non so che viso avesse (Mondadori, Milano 2010); La poesia contemporanea (il Mulino, Bologna 2012); the handbook Poesia italiana dal Novecento a oggi, Marietti 1820, Bologna 2019. He is also autor of the texts and the mapping of the Emilian-Romagna literary landscape produced and made by the Emilia-Romagna Region in 2002.
Alberto Bertoni is also author of several collections of poems, starting in 1981. Lettere stagionali (Book Editore, Castel Maggiore 1996, with a note by Giovanni Giudici); Tatì (ivi, 1999, a tribute in verse to Gianni D'Elia); Il catalogo è questo. Poesie 1978-2000 (Il cavaliere azzurro, Parma 2000 with a note by Roberto Barbolini); Le cose dopo (Aragno, Torino 2003, afterword byAndrea Battistini); Ho visto perdere Varenne (Manni, Lecce 2006, preface by Niva Lorenzini); Ricordi di Alzheimer (Book Editore, Castel Maggiore (FE) 2008 e 2012, with a letter in verse written in dialect by Francesco Guccini); Il letto vuoto (Aragno, Torino 2012); Traversate (SEF, Firenze 2014); Poesie 1980-2014 (Aragno, Torino 2018); e L’isola dei topi (Einaudi, Torino 2021).
He has also translated poetry from English into Italian: Blue and Blue (Un'antologia di poeti anglo-irlandesi-americani) (Sometti, Mantova 2000). He has edited an edition of Shakespeare’s sonnets (W. Shakespeare, Sonetti d'amore, Giunti, Firenze 2012, in cooperation with Guido Mattia Gallerani). He is author of several anthologies of poetry translated into Italian: Poesia della traduzione (Sometti, Mantova 2003, in cooperation with Alberto Cappi); e Trent'anni di Novecento. Libri italiani di poesia e dintorni 1971-2000 (Book Editore, Castel Maggiore 2005).
He has also cooperated for the performance of music and poetry with poet Enrico Trebbi and with sax jazz player Ivan Valentini for the recording of the CDs La casa azzurra (Mobydick, Faenza 1997) and Viaggi (Arxcollana & Book Editore, Castel Maggiore 2001). In cooperation with musicians Franco D'Aniello and Massimo Giuntini, of the group Modena City Ramblers, he translated and interpreted Voci e suoni d'Irlanda (I Teatri di Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia 2001). Together with sax player Ivan Valentini and pianist Michele Francesconi he has written and performed for the recording of music and poetry in the CD I giorni assenti (Mobydick, Faenza 2012).
He is director of the series of contemporary poetry “Fuoricasa” e “Quaderni di Fuoricasa” for the publisher Book Editore. Since 2005 he has been scientific advisor of the “PoesiaFestival” of Castelnuovo Rangone and the festival “Poiesis Fabriano”.
From 2008 to 2010 together with Biancamaria Frabotta he edited the critical diary of the Almanac “Lo Specchio Mondadori”. He created and edited the journals "Gli immediati dintorni" and "Frontiera". Together with Stefano Massari and Giancarlo Sissa he founded the association "FuoricasaPoesia", which since 2005 has been publishing on the web the multimedia magazine "Secolo Zero / Century Zero” and between 2008 and 2009 published the journal “land”. Together with Stefano Massari and Pier Damiano Ori he founded the cultural and multimedia association “CartaBianca”, which is interested in poetry, visual arts and videopoetry. Within this association Stefano Massari published the dvd Cinque gennaio, with texts taken from Ricordi di Alzheimer and music by Ivan Valentini.
Some poems by Alberto Bertoni have been translated into Russian, English, French, Spanish and Czech. In particular, in 2012 Raquel Lanseros e Fernando Valverde translated into Spanish an anthology of his poems with the title El guardiàn del lugar (Antologia poetica), for the publisher “Festival di Poesia di Granada”.
