THE TRANSLATOR'S VOICE:AN INTERVIEW WITH MARTHA KING

BY V. LOUISE KATAINEN

Martha King, an American Italianist who has lived in Tuscany since 1978, is a translator of the first order: her style is simple, clear, and meticulously faithful to the original.King specializes in the translation into English of 20th-century Italian women novelists and short story writers.

King received her bachelor's degree in English from the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh in 1966, and her master's degree in 1967 and Ph.D. in Italian in 1973 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, with a doctoral dissertation on The Influence of Byron on Italian Culture.In 1980, King received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to translate selections of Giacomo Leopardi's Zibaldone, which was published in 1992 (New York: Peter Lang).King holds the position of Lecturer with the University of Maryland's European Division, where she teaches courses on Italian Life and Culture, Composition, and Creative & Technical Writing.She spends half the year in Tuscany, Italy and half in Auburn, Alabama.

King began her work as a translator in the mid 1970s, concentrating first on the works of various poets, for the most part modern (such as Cesare Pavese, Edoardo Ciacciatore, Gaetano Arcangeli, and Pier Paolo Pasolini), but also including one medieval poet (Bernard de Ventadorn).Early prose translations include a chapter from a novel by Vera Cacciatore, a chapter of Sibilla Aleramo's Una Donna, and Mario Ruocco's Sardinia, Sardinia.In subsequent years, Martha King has focused increasingly on the translation of two women writers: Dacia Maraini and Grazia Deledda.Works by Maraina that King has translated comprise "My Hands,"The Literary Review, (Spring 1984); "Mother and Son," Panurge4 (UK) (April 1986); and "Maria," Panurge6 (April 1987).Works by Grazia Deledda translated by King are "A Man and a Woman," Stories, No. 15 (1986); "The Mistress and Her Servants," Stories, No. 18 (1987); and "The Thirteen Eggs," Stories, No. 25 (1991).King's translation of Francesca Vitale's "The Electric Typewriter" has been published not only in New Italian Women but also in Vital Signs:International Short Stories on Aging (Washington: Graywolf Press, 1991).

King has also translated a number of longer works: Vasco Pratolini's Family Chronicle (New York: Italica Press, 1988); Grazia Deledda's Cosima (New York: Italica Press, 1988); and Deledda's Elias Portolu (London: Quarter Books, 1992); and Chiaroscuro, a collection of 22 short stories by Grazia Deledda that will be published in May 1994 by Quartet Books Ltd. Currently under review for publication are Mysteries of a Neapolitan Coister (Florence: Giunti, 1986) by Enrichetta Caracciolo and Masks, Myths and Festivals in Sardinia (Roma: Newton Compton, 1990) by Dolores Turchi.King's first translations of plays, "Via Toledo by Night" by Raffaele Viviani and "Emma B" by Alberto Savinio, will appear in an anthology entitled Twentieth-Century Italian Drama (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994).At present King is translating Deledda's Canne al vento (Milan: Fratelli Trevese, 1913; Milan Mondadori, 1988) and concluding a biography of Grazia Deledda.One of King's next projects is the translation of Gina Lagorio's novel Tosca dei gatti (Milan: Garzanti, 1988).King's own writings include numerous articles and reviews.

The primary focus of the following interview is King's edition of New Italian Women:A Collection of Short Fiction, a collection of translated short texts by modern Italian female writers published in 1989 by Italica Press (New York).This anthology offers a broad selection of modern Italian prose that both casual readers and serious students of Italian will find stimulating and revealing.Other issues of interest discussed in the interview include the problems and techniques of modern prose translation and editing, the state of present scholarship on modern Italian women authors, and current interest in modern Italian writers in both Italy and the English-speaking world.

VLK:Let's talk about New Italian Women: A Collection of Short Fiction.In my view, this anthology contributes in a significant way to a greater understanding of modern Italian fiction in North America.New Italian Women brings to North American readers a new perspective on Italy's answers to questions such as universal education, feminism, and other social concerns of the new republic in the period since the end of World War II.When did you begin to think of making this edition?Did the request come from an editor?

MK:Eileen Gardiner, one of the editors of Italica Press, asked me to edit this anthology.My field being Italian, I, naturally, had read works of many Italian women writers, but not for any particular reason or with any particular goal in mind.So, when Gardiner approached me with this project in 1988, I started reading everything I could about women and by women.

VLK:Was it easy or difficult to find the sources for New Italian Women?

MK:It was not difficult.There are many publications in Italian focusing on women authors, and some in English.

VLK:What are some of the Italian publications on women?

MK:There is one edited by Giuliana Morandini, La voce che è in Lei. Also, Racconta is a book of short stories by Italian women writers edited by Rosaria Guacci and Bruna Miorelli.There are also Paola Blelloch's Quel mondo dei guanti e delle stoffe, profili di scrittrici italiane del '900 and Maria Rosa Cutrufelli's edition, Scritture, scrittrici.Maria Rosa Cutrufelli also edits a new magazine of women's writing, Tuttestorie, which is published three times a year in Rome.

Then there are many publications by women's groups.In the past it was primarily the Communist Party that supported these women's groups.Now there are also numerous women's bookstores and libraries in the largest cities:Rome, Florence, Milan.You can go there to find books and talk to the very knowledgeable saleswomen about different authors.

There's a lot of work being done.Carol Lazzaro Weis is writing a book on Italian women writers which covers 50 authors.In the winter 1988 issue of Italica, which was entirely dedicated to Italian women writers, Weis published an interesting article entitled "Gender and Genre in Italian Feminist Literature in the Seventies."

VLK:Are there other recent anthologies of modern Italian writers in translation?

MK:New Italian Women is the only anthology of prose in English we know of.An anthology of poetry has come out rather recently and, of course, there continues to be much critical work published on Italian women writers.When I examined Gaucci and Miorelli's Racconta, I was pleased to see that many of the authors represented in that anthology are the same women I independently selected for New Italian Women.Racconta is longer than New Italian Women, comprising works by Barbara Alberti, Ginevra Bompiani, Paola Capriolo, Francesca Duranti, Ida Farè, Gina Lagorio, Silvana La Spina, Grazia Livi, Rosetta Loy, Dacia Maraini, Paola Masino, Piera Oppezzo, Anna Maria Ortese, Sandra Petrignani, Fabrizia Ramondino, Lalla Romano, Francesco Sanvitale, Maria Schiavo, Beatrice Solinas Donghi, Bibi Tomasi, Martina Vergani, and Marisa Volpi.

New Italian Women, on the other hand, consists of the translations of 16 female authors, some with well established international literary reputations and others less well known.As its subtitle indicates, this anthology of "short fiction" comprises not only short stories but also excerpts from novels.Specifically, the nine novels from which excerpts have been translated are Anna Banti's Il coraggio delle donne (Milan: La Tartaruga, 1983), Paola Drigo's Maria Zef (Milan: Garzanti, 1939, 1982), Natalia Ginzburg's La città e la Casa (Turin: Einaudi, 1985), Gina Lagorio's Tosca dei gatti (Milan: Garzanti, 1983), Rosetta Loy's La strada di polvere (Turin: Einaudi, 1988), Giuliana Morandini's Angelo a Berlino (Milan: Bompiani, 1987), Elsa Morante's Aracoeli (Torino: Einaudi, 1982), Maria Occhipinti's Una donna di Ragusa (Milan: Luciano Landi, 1957; Milan: Feltrinelli, 1976), Fabrizia Ramondino's Storie di Patio (Torino: Einaudi, 1983), and Francesca Sanvitale's La realtà è un dono (Milan: Mondadori, 1987).I believe that New Italian Women constitutes a fair cross-sectional representation of modern Italian female writers.

VLK:How long did it take you to complete New Italian Women?

MK:I spent a year on the project.The book came out in November 1989.

VLK:What do you see as the purpose of this edition?

MK: The approach I adopted was to look at women who had been writing for some time but whose contributions had not been sufficiently recognized until fairly recently.My editors left everything up to me; they didn't interfere in the least.However, they did want to include some well-recognized names, like Elsa Morante and Natalia Ginzburg and Grazia Deledda.The public is just not going to buy a book by someone they have never heard of before.Therefore, we used a Deledda story translated by William Weaver.We also included Dacia Maraini, who is better known than some of the others.However, all the writers selected have published for years, and some of them have won literary prizes, such as the Viareggio, the Rapallo, and the Campiello.I think a passage from my Introduction to the anthology sums up my purpose for editing it: "This collection of fiction by Italian women of the latter half of the twentieth century celebrates a high level of accomplishment.The selections presented here not only continue the tradition of women's literature begun over a century ago, but they inaugurate an exciting vitality in Italian letters that promises continued growth" (xiii).

VLK:How did you narrow down your selections and make the final choices?

MK:Pretty much by my own taste.I would read works by female authors who had been suggested to me.I asked many friends and professional acquaintances who they thought the important women writing today were.

VLK:Like the librarians in charge of women's libraries?

MK:Yes.And I asked those Italian friends of mine who read a lot, and William Weaver, who translates so prodigiously and knows so many writers in Italy.He suggested several writers.So I started with a long list of names.

VLK:How long a list?

MK:I probably started with 25 names.Then I decided to investigate those writers whose names were mentioned to me over and over.I went to libraries and bookstores to obtain works by them and discover what appealed to me.In addition, I asked William Weaver to suggest the names of some translators, because I knew I wanted a variety of translators, too.One of the names he gave me was that of Henry Martin, who has published a novel by Anna Maria Ortese and is now translating a book of her short stories.Consequently, I asked Martin to translate a story by Anna Maria Ortese.Another translator, Gloria Italiano, chose a piece from a novel by Maria Occhipinti, who is also a friend of hers.Barbara Nucci, an American living in Naples, chose the Neapolitan Fabrizia Ramondino.So some stories were selected by the translators themselves.

VLK:What were the criteria according to which you selected the pieces included in the anthology?Were pragmatic questions such as the availability of pieces for translation and/or publication very important?Did ideological values affect the selection process?Were there any other factors that came into play?

MK:We were looking for themes from modern Italian life.We didn't have to look hard, because that's what female authors are writing about.We wanted to find out how Italian life has changed and how literature reflects these changes.

VLK:Since the end of the Second World War?

MK:Yes.As you know, women were not encouraged very much to write until that time.Natalia Ginzburg, Elsa Morante, Grazia Deledda, and Anna Banti were the only women authors published before then whose works have stood the test of time.Tradition dictated that women were supposed to stay home and have babies.Most of the writers represented in the anthology are focusing in their fiction on post-war Italy.In addition to the four authors just mentioned, New Italian Women also includes stories by Paola Drigo, Geda Jacolutti, Gina Lagorio, Rosetta Loy, Dacia Maraini, Milena Milani, Marina Mizzau, Giuliana Morandini, Maria Occhipinti, Anna Maria Ortese, Fabrizia Ramondino, and Francesca Sanvitale.I think it is fair to say that the selections in New Italian Women paint perceptive, and sometimes ironic, social and psychological portraits of Italians of different regions, through the authors' detailed recreation of their protagonists' environments, as well as through the narrative actions of the stories.

VLK:Tell me about the various phases of work a translator goes through in preparing an anthology of this sort.

MK:First of all, I just spent time reading, taking notes and talking to people, making notes and more notes.I collected cuttings out of newspapers and magazines, reviews and articles, until I felt I had a fairly good understanding of the contemporary literary milieu; that is, a knowledge of who was writing and publishing.Then I started talking to translators, either requesting them to translate a particular author or asking them for the names of other translators.I also had to collect the biographies of both the authors and the translators:not a minor task.After I sent the manuscript off, it took about five months before the book saw the light of day, as the publishing process comprises many stages, too.

VLK:Which phase of work would you characterize as the most difficult and which as the easiest or most pleasurable?

MK:It was fun getting in contact with many of the translators and some of the authors.I was able to meet some interesting people--a process that has continued up to the present time as a result of my participation in various conferences and panels, such as the international Holyoke conference in Rome.The initial research was also enjoyable work.I read some wonderful books, one of my very favorites being Elsa Morante's charming L'Isola d'Arturo.Perhaps my greatest challenge was trying to curb one of the translators, who had very insistent ideas of how much she should contribute.

VLK:Did the editors at Italica Press specify the length of the anthology?

MK:Yes.They wanted to keep it under 200 pages.

VLK:How did you decide upon the order of presentation in the anthology?

MK:It is in alphabetical order.In one of the university courses I taught, for which New Italian Women was a text, one of the best students asked if the arrangement was deliberate because she felt the short sketches at the end of the book, written by Monica Sarsini and translated by Gloria Italiano, encompassed all the themes in the book.And I said, "Well, I'm glad you saw that because there wasn't any deliberate plan to place it at the end."

VLK:That's remarkable, because I think the first selection, Anna Banti's "The Courage of Women," is a very appropriate story with which to start.Being a sort of cliffhanger, it catches the reader's attention.

MK:It was good that Banti's "The Courage of Women" came first.Although it was written in this century, it deals with women's problems in the last century; that is, when women began to question their inferior status.

VLK:Reading that story, I was struck by the thought of how very little has changed.

MK:Certainly not enough.

VLK:How many of the writers included in New Italian Women do you know personally?

MK:I knew Geda Jacolutti, who has since died, and I've talked with some of the others.I would love to have known them all.I thought at the time that I had sort of an entree to meet them, and yet it really wasn't necessary for me to talk with them.Morandini and I spoke on the phone about meeting sometime either in Rome or at my house, but we haven't.

VLK:Had you already worked on the pieces that you yourself translated for New Italian Women?

MK:Not all of them.I had already translated Banti's "The Courage of Women," which I was going to freelance for a journal.My translation of Dacia Maraini's "Maria"had already been published in Panurge in England.The only piece I translated for this anthology was Francesca Sanvitale's "The Electric Typewriter," which also appears in Vital Signs:International Short Stories on Aging, edited by Dorothy Sennett.

VLK:How many of the other translators already had translations ready?

MK:Dick Davis's translation of "Dear Giuseppe" by Natalia Ginzburg had already been published, and we got permission to use it.Helen Barolini did the piece by Rosetta Loy, "That One Dance," just for New Italian Women; similarly, Barbara Nucci did Milena Milani's "The Kiss in the Sea," "My Mother Wore Pink," and "Ice Cream."I don't know about Blossom Kirschenbaum's translation of Paola Drigo's "Carnival Time." Margherita Piva did "Tosca's Cats," by Gina Lagorio, for New Italian Women.And William Weaver had already published Grazia Deledda's "Sardinian Fox" and Elsa Morante's "The Mirrors."In fact, when I first approached Weaver on the subject, I asked if he would do something for us; he said that he really didn't have the time but that he'd be happy for us to use anything that he'd already translated.

VLK:How would you describe William Weaver as a person?

MK:He is very nice. He has always been extremely helpful to me, from the first time I contacted him about Leopardi's Zibaldone, which I was translating at the time.I had read his translations of Leopardi's Pensieri and had some questions I wanted to ask him.

VLK:How was communication across the Atlantic with Italica Press?Was it necessary to make any trips to the U.S. to consult with your editors?

MK:No.We spoke on the phone only a couple of times.But one must remember that letters can get back and forth pretty fast through the APO, which is available to me because the University of Maryland Abroad Program offers courses to United States servicemen and women in Europe.APO mail is virtually as fast as U.S. domestic mail.

VLK:How many copies of New Italian Women have been sold so far?

MK:About 2500.It is now in its third printing.

VLK:Do you have any regrets regarding this project?

MK:My one regret concerns the authors we left out. Many other women writers could have been included, but space was limited.And there are certainly many other Italian women writers who should be recognized in the States.Barbara Nucci once suggested to Eileen Gardiner that we need a sequel that includes other women, to which Gardiner replied, "Well, maybe we will."

VLK:Tell me about Italica Press.

MK:Italica Press was begun by Eileen Gardiner and Ron Musto in 1985.The press specializes in translations into English of medieval and Renaissance texts, such as Petrarch's The Revolution of Cola di Rienzo, translated from Latin by Mario E. Cosenza, and Erasmus's The Praise of Folly, advertised in Italica Press's catalog as "a best-seller since 1511."Italica Press also specializes in English translation of modern Italian novels.For example, Aldo Palazzeschi's Man of Smoke, translated by Nicolas J. Perella and Ruggero Stefanini, has come out just recently.Two publications that will soon see the light of day are the first English translations of Selected Poems by Gaspara Stampa, an important intellectual of the Renaissance, and Lisbon in the Renaissance Lisbon in the Renaissance, by the 16th-century Portuguese humanist, Daniao Góis'.As you can see, Italica Press is publishing texts of interest to both historians and literary critics, on the one hand, and to readers of modern fiction, on the other.

VLK:How did you meet the publishers?

MK:I had a selection from Deledda's Cosima published in Translation, which is published by Columbia University.After Eileen Gardiner saw that piece she wrote to me and asked if by chance I had translated the entire book.I had, and so we went from there.Then she asked me what other things I might have translated, and one of them was Vasco Pratolini's Cronaca familiare.Later she asked me to do New Italian Women.

VLK:When did she contact you about publishing Cosima?

MK:Around 1986.Both Cosima and Family Chronicle were published in 1988.

VLK:I would like to know how long it took you to translate Cosima.

MK:It took me a couple of years, because I don't work on translations constantly.I also teach.If I could just sit down and work eight hours a day on the translations, I'd get them out in a few months.When I do something freelance, where I just do it because I like the work, I check, as well as I can in Italy, to see if it has been published, has been translated or not.

VLK:You have translated a considerable number of works by Deledda, and now you are finishing up her biography.What attracted you to this author?

MK:I think Sardinia and Deledda came on my horizon about the same time.I feel a deep affinity for Sardinia, and I have visited the island many times. The more I know about the culture, and the more I read of Deledda's works, the more I understand both.Deledda's grandson and another grandson's widow have been wonderfully helpful.Through them I have met other family members who have given me copies of Deledda's letters.Writing Deledda's biography has provided me with the opportunity of making many interesting contacts in Nuoro (in Sardinia) and Rome.For example, I have come to know the ethnologist Dolores Turchi in Oliena (Sardinia); an article I wrote about Turchi's work was published in Folklore Forum.Also, Iris, a journal about women, will soon be publishing a biographical sketch I wrote of Deledda.

VLK:How much interest is there now in Italy in modern female writers?

MK:It's a curious situation.When I meet a young professional woman through friends of mine--a teacher or doctor or lawyer--I say, "What do you read?" and, inevitably, they read no fiction.I ask them if they've ever heard of some of these women writers, and they haven't.I don't know who reads the books, but they do sell.Some people are buying them; I just haven't met them.

VLK:I've been surprised by this, too.Italians are intellectually included, but I have read in more than one source addressing modern Italian culture that Italians are not great readers.

MK:That must be true.But who do you think is buying the books?You go into a bookstore in Florence, for example, and it is full of people looking at books.Barbara Nucci and I were in the Feltrinelli bookstore in Naples where she wanted to buy Fabrizia Ramondino's latest book, Un giorno e mezzo.We were standing in line waiting to pay for it.An older gentleman standing near us pointed to the book in Barbara's hand and said, "That's a very good book."We commented later on the fact that at least one person had read it.

VLK:What is your sense about the interest in modern Italian writers, or modern Italian women writers, in the United States?

MK:I think the interest is pretty much located in the big urban centers like New York, because that's where New Italian Women is selling, and it is selling well, they say.It is now in its third printing.

VLK:How many works by how many authors have you translated?

MK:I've translated about 25 of Grazia Deledda's short stories.I've also translated two of Dacia Maraini's short stories, one by Vera Cacciatore, and some poems.Among the longer works I have translated are Vasco Pratolini'sFamily Chronicle and Grazia Deledda's Cosima.I received an NEH grant to translate selections from Leopardi's Zibaldone; it was published by Peter Lang in 1992.My collaborator on this project was Daniela Bini of the University of Texas.I am also awaiting word on another book currently being considered for publication:Enrichetta Caracciolo's Mysteries of a Neapolitan Cloister.Born to a noble but impoverished Neapolitan family, the author, Enrichetta Caracciolo, then about 17 years old, was sent by her widowed mother to the Benedictine cloistered convent in Naples--run by the girl's aunt, I might add.The mother did this because she couldn't afford to keep Enrichetta at home; she had several other daughters to provide for.This was a common financial solution at that time; it seemed wiser to send a daughter to a convent than to arrange for her a marriage that was financially and perhaps socially disadvantageous.In any case, Enrichetta spent about the next 20 years trying to get out of the convent.First published in 1848, Mysteries of a Neapolitan Cloister is the story of all the problems Enrichetta had with the civil and religious bureaucracy; she also describes the convent and the sometimes questionable habits and customs of various nuns and priests.It's quite an interesting story.

VLK:How did you first become interested in reading and translating Italian female writers?

MK:Only when I went to Italy did I start to hear about Italian women writers.When I was in graduate school I took a course entitled "The Italian Novel."We did not read a single woman author, even though Morante and Ginzburg, not to mention Deledda and others, were being published in Italy at the time.I recently inquired and discovered that the situation has not changed at that university since the early 1970s.Ironically, many of the male writers American graduate students read are now passed over in Italy, while the female authors just mentioned are still being widely read.

VLK:How do you think your tranlating craft has evolved since you started?

MK:I used to go through a work from beginning to end very quickly, making a sort of outline first, and then I would start refining it.Now, I translate more slowly and as well as I can at that moment.For me, translating requires going over a piece at least twice very carefully; it also requires a final, quicker reading to gauge the total effect of the translation.Throughout this process, I always try to improve it where I can.

VLK:When you're polishing now, what sorts of changes are you making?

MK:I try to maintain the delicate balance between the truest expression of the author's tone and meaning and a fluid English.After that painstaking task, I just call it finished, though I could probably go on forever finding more apt words and expressions.

VLK:What are the reference sources you use to verify the accuracy of the translation?

MK:I have many dictionaries.Fairly recently, I bought the Ragazzini dictionary and Giacomo Devoto's Dizionario etimologico, but I still use the Garzanti dictionary on a regular basis.I also find Dizionario dei sinonimi e dei contrari, published by Rizzoli, extremely useful.A little trick William Weaver once told me about, that I sometimes use, is to go back to the Latin root.He said he sometimes does that if he just cannot come up with the right English word.And then, my other sources are my Italian friends and acquaintances and anybody I can nab on the way--"What do you think this word means?"--and if they don't speak any English, I say, "Tell me what this word means to you in other words in Italian."And I go from there.

VLK:How do you keep up with the new prose in Italy?

MK:Mostly through the reviews in newspapers.Also, friends are kind enough to clip pertinent articles and reviews for me.

VLK:Which are the Italian newspapers you read on a regular basis?

MK:I regularly read La Repubblica and La Nazione.I don't ordinarily buy Il Corriere della Sera, but I have used articles from it.La Repubblica has some nice long articles on some of these women writers, which friends have saved for me.Many women write for Il Manifesto, a leftist publication; I buy that once in a while, to see what reviews might be in it.The monthly magazine, Noi Donne, and Tuttestorie, published three times annually, also review books.Espresso and Panorama are useful for their commentaries on cultural trends, as well as on politics and social issues.

VLK:Are there many other translators doing modern Italian work?

MK:Many.Both John Shepley and Patrick Creagh, to cite only two, translate a great deal.

VLK:When you say there are many translators, are you referring to translators of prose?

MK:Yes.

VLK:Are you less interested in poetry?

MK:I have translated poetry in the past but I just don't consider myself good enough for that.I prefer to stick to the prose, which I consider much easier.You have to be a poet to make a good translation of poetry, unless you just want to make a pony, a literal translation, which is nothing anyone would want to read for pleasure.Ruth Feldman is a translator of poetry; I don't think she translates prose at all.She has just published translations of Primo Levi and also of Margherita Guidacci, a living poet.In fact, she translates a great deal of Italian poetry.

VLK:What are the other languages into which modern Italian writers are translated, especially Italian women writers?

MK:Ginzburg must be translated into just about every language that publishes books.The same can be said of Deledda's novels.

VLK:What is your next project?

MK: As I mentioned, I am now finishing the Deledda biography, and I'm getting my translation of her Canes in the Wind ready to send to Quartet Books for consideration for publication.Then I want to finish translating Gina Lagorio's Tosca dei gatti.I was quite taken by Tosca the Cat Lady from the first time I read it for the anthology.The novel treats themes of the needs of the aging person, romance among the middle-aged and among young adults, the power of love, and family conflicts.It is humorous and, I feel, heart-warming and uplifting, in spite of some rather somber moments.I have Signora Lagorio's permission to translate it, but as yet I have no publisher, which is the way I seem to work most of the time.

VLK:One might say that your current project reflects your continuing interest in the tradition of women's literature and its contribution, as you note in your Introduction to New Italian Women, to the "exciting vitality in Italian letters."

MK: Yes.As I wrote in my Introduction, there is an impressive number of women writing fiction in Italy today.They deserve an audience not only in Italy, but also, through translation, in English-speaking countries.My goal in editing New Italian Women:A Collection of Short Fiction was to increase the international appreciation these women writers deserve.

TRANSLATIONS BY MARTHA KING

Short Fiction

Vera Cacciatore.A short story.The Pawn Review, Fall, 1977.

Sibilla Aleramo.A chapter from Una Donna.Moving Out, Fall, 1980.

Dacia Maraina."My Hands."The Literary Review,Spring, 1984.

Grazia Deledda.From Cosima.Translation, Fall, 1985.

Dacia Maraina."Mother and Son." Panurge4 (UK), April, 1986.

Grazia Deledda."A Man and a Woman" and a selection from Cosima.Stories, No. 18, 1987.

Dacia Maraina."Maria." Panurge6,April, 1987.

Grazia Deledda."The Mistress and Her Servants."Stories, No. 18, 1987.

Francesca Vitale."The Electric Typewriter."Vital Signs: International Short Stories on Aging, ed. Dorothy Sennett.Washington: Graywolf Press, 1991.

Grazia Deledda."The Thirteen Eggs."Stories, No. 25, 1991.

Books

Mario Ruocco.Sardinia, Sardinia.Livorno: Toglio, 1982.

Bruno Santi.Palazzo Medici Riccardi. Firenze: Becocci, 1983.

Vatican Museums:Egyptians and Etruscans.Firenze: Scala, 1983.

Grazia Deledda.Cosima, with Introduction.New York: Italica Press, 1988.

New Italian Women:A collection of Short Fiction, edited, with translations and Introduction.New York: Italica Press, 1989.

Grazia Deledda.Elias Portolu, with Introduction and Notes.London: Quartet Books Ltd., 1992.

Giacomo Leopardi.Zibaldone (a selection), with Introduction, in collaboration with Daniela Bini.New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1992.

Grazia Deledda.Chiaroscuro and Other Stories.London: Quartet Books Ltd., 1994.

Plays

Raffaele Viviani."Via Toledo By Night."Anthology of Twentieth-Century Italian Drama.New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

Alberto Savinio."Emma B."Anthology of Twentieth-Century Italian Drama.New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

Translation Review, Volume 44/45, 1994.