Anny Ballardini says: I was born on July 24, 1956, and live in Bolzano, Italy. Cosmopolitan (that makes trendy? I guess so) I lived in New York (in the Village till the age of 10), New Orleans, Buenos Aires, Florence, Bolzano, and bits and pieces here and there (Heidelberg, Tour sur la Loire ...). I pay my bills by teaching and translating, sometimes writing for the local newspaper. I am the curator/editor of the Poets’ Corner, and here is my Blog, Narcissus’ Works, come and see me sometimes. See her work here, here, here, here, here and here. Among her translations are: In_Ri by Henry Gould; On the trail of words by Larry Jaffe; Smokestacks Allegro by Rita Cominolli; Metaphysical Reference by Kenneth Hirst; from English into Italian \–/ and from Italian into English: The Renaissance of the Self; and the Notebook of Positano by Arturo Onofri. 1. What is the first poem you ever loved? Why? My mother made me learn by heart Leopardi’s poems, full with sadness, and death; I still remember XXXV – Imitation: “Poor frail leaf... I go where all things go, where, of nature, goes the flower of the rose, and the flower of the laurel” and I always imagined a gutter (we were in New York at the time), and the dissolving of things. That is why I loved The Mother Goose Rhymes, all that nonsense and they were such cheerful, playful words in my mouth that made laugh and want more. 2. What is something/someone non-“literary” you read which may surprise your peers/colleagues? Why do you read it/them? I recently quoted Rimbaud on my blog: “J'aimais les peintures idiotes, dessus des portes, décors, toiles de saltimbanques, enseignes, enluminures populaires; la littérature démodée, latin d'église, livres érotiques sans orthographe, romans de nos aïeules, contes de fées, petits livres de l'enfance, opéras vieux, refrains niais, rhythmes naïfs.” This could be me. Just give me something to read, some movies to watch (I decided not to switch on television any more about ten years ago, and I have since then stuck to it –it was eating down my days), any magazine: technical, on medicine, science, microbiology, finance, anything, and you make me happy. I have this incredibly dilated vision of things, associations abound, universes are continuously created and re-created. To say that I love to live is little. 3. How important is philosophy to your writing? Why? Thank you for this question on philosophy so that I can mention Friedrich Nietzsche. I first met him when I was eighteen, and since then I have found no one able reach my self better than him. Philosophy is the backbone of any creative invention. 4. Who are some of your favorite non-Anglo-American writers? Why? There are too many, my list of favorites is about a mile long. But I usually prefer American authors. 5. Do you read a lot of poetry? If so, how important is it to your writing? I do, but I have my difficulties in starting and finishing the collected works of an author at once. That is why my reading is fragmented. I always remember my friend artist who said that to be able to paint you have to make tabula rasa of all what you have been taught, the more you have read, the more you have to clean out before writing. 6. What is something which your peers/colleagues may assume you’ve read but haven’t? Why haven’t you? I have cracks and hollows everywhere, worse than the surface of the moon. You mention an author, and I haven’t read some particular book. Not because, but because. And I can fill pages with explanations. 7. How would you explain what a poem is to my seven year old? I think childhood, be it happy or sad, is a poem by itself. I would just go ahead with stories and stories and let your child complete or reinvent them. 8. Do you believe in a Role for the Poet? If so, how does it differ from the Role of the Citizen? It is interesting to notice that you use capital letters, which requires a capital answer. John Tranter gave a great answer. A Poet is a Citizen, does he have to be a better citizen, I think so. What is usually understood by “better” by the Poet does not necessarily comply with what his/her society judges as being “better”, as history has clearly shown. 9. Word associations (the first word which comes to mind; be honest): Lemon**shrill Chiseled**Gothic I**my Of**loft Form**norm (honest!) 10. What is the relationship between the text and the body in your writing? I was very pleased to discover that I could write as I wished by moving words and lines, and this was given to me by the pc, and on another level by my trips. What might be interesting here is my involvement with the text, and I would like to quote Karl Kraus who said (I am paraphrasing): “Nothing will ever happen to me when I am writing, if Death came I would tell her to wait”.