Written by one of the most compelling new voices in Italian literature, All the Eyes that I Have Opened (Tutti gli occhi che ho aperto), available in a bilingual edition at Black Square Editions, is the fourth of Franca Mancinelli’s books to appear in English.

Weaving together verse and poetic prose, this artfully composed book creates “a fragmented trail of meaning” (as she puts it) that “goes beyond changes in space-time and in the subject who speaks, be it human, a tree, an ancient votive statuette, an encamped migrant, or a woman in her liminal daily life.” When the original Italian book was published in 2020 by Marcos y Marcos, it won two national prizes and was reviewed widely.

The writings of Mancinelli, whose “voice” is “one of the most intense and original in contemporary Italian poetry” (Fabio Pusterla), have been translated into fifteen languages. 

“Franca Mancinelli has written a book [All the Eyes that I Have Opened] that is powerful and hallucinatory, biographical and cosmic, capable of venturing into the realms of dreams with a detailed map, with an at once precise and delirious gaze which names a place in the Balkans with the same voice with which the explosion of a comet or an optic nerve cries out.” —Milo De Angelis, jury president, Europa in Versi Prize. 

“For a true poet, which Mancinelli undoubtedly is, the quest goes beyond simple philosophical questioning. It is an existential struggle. […] [A] remarkably mature poetic voice, sincere and humble in its search for meaning, worthy of the awards and accolades she has been accumulating.” —Mark Glanville, Times Literary Supplement. 

“Whether exploring the natural world, the mysteries of the human psyche, or the shifting currents of the heart, Mancinelli’s poems are suffused with a sense of wonder and reverence for the world around us, as well as a deep engagement with the fundamental questions of existence.” —Adele Bardazzi and Roberto Binetti, Asymptote.

An excerpt from All the Eyes that I Have Opened, from the section Diary of Passage. 

Another excerpt, initially published in Trafika Europe. 

Franca Mancinelli was born in 1981 in Fano, Italy, where she currently lives. In English, her prose poems are available in The Little Book of Passage (2018), her verse poetry in At an Hour’s Sleep from Here (2019), and her selected prose writings in The Butterfly Cemetery (2022). When Tutti gli occhi che ho aperto was published in 2020 by Marcos y Marcos, it was awarded the Europa in Versi Prize and the San Vito al Tagliamento Prize. Her website: francamancinelli.com 

Ordering information: Black Square Editions.

FRANCA MANCINELLI -All the Eyes that I Have Opened translated from the Italian by John Taylor. Black Square Editions. Bilingual edition, 200 pp, $25.00, ISBN: 978-0-9997028-9-5