Policromia: the international festival of poetry and translation

Friday, May 23 the Briganti Library hosts Policromia, an international festival dedicated to poetry and the art of translation, now in its fourth edition.

Thanks to the curation by poets Mairéad Byrne and Will Schutt, the festival brings to Siena poetic voices from Ireland, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with a rich program that includes poetry workshops, public readings, and roundtable discussions.

Each year, a selected and varied group of poets and translators gathers in one of Italy's most evocative cities for four days of meetings, dialogues, and informal moments dedicated to sharing and reflection.

Curated by the director of the Siena Art Institute, Miriam Grottanelli de Santi, together with Mairéad Byrne and Will Schutt, Policromia aims to build a local and international community of professionals and enthusiasts of poetry and translation, fostering cultural exchange and collaboration between languages and diverse traditions.

Mairéad Byrne emigrated from Ireland in 1994 to devote herself to poetry. In Ireland she worked as a nurse, journalist, playwright, gallery director, arts centre director and teacher. In the United States she earned a master's in American Poetry and creative writing (1996) and a doctorate in Theory and Cultural Studies (2001), both from Purdue University. Her early publications, The Pillar and Nelson & The Huruburu Bird, were published by Wild Honey Press in Ireland. Publications in the United States include SOS Poetry (/ubu Editions), Talk Poetry (Miami University Press), The Best of (What’s Left of) Heaven (Publishing Genius) and You Have to Laugh (Barrow Street). Famosa na sua cabeça, selected and translated by Dirceu Villa, was published in Brazil. Mairéad teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, where for seven years she co-curated couscous, a monthly poetry and music event. She currently co-curates, together with Will Schutt, Policromia, an annual festival of poetry and translation in Siena.

Stefano Dal Bianco (Padua 1961) teaches Poetics and Stylistics at the University of Siena. In the 1980s, together with Mario Benedetti and Fernando Marchiori, he edited the contemporary poetry magazine «Scarto minimo». He then worked on the editorial staff of «Poesia». He is currently on the editorial board of the journal «Stilistica e metrica italiana» and on the steering committee of the Franco Fortini study centre in Siena. As a scholar and committed critic he has mainly dealt with the metrics of Francesco Petrarca, Ludovico Ariosto, Andrea Zanzotto, and Italian twentieth-century poetry. He edited Zanzotto for the Meridiano Mondadori in 1999 (with Gian Mario Villalta) and the Oscar Tutte le poesie (2011). Poetry books: La bella mano (Crocetti 1991), Stanze del gusto cattivo (in Primo quaderno italiano, Guerini e associati 1991), Ritorno a Planaval (Mondadori 2001; LietoColle 2018 2 ), Prove di libertà (Mondadori 2012), Paradiso (Garzanti 2024, prizes: Camaiore, Celle Arte Natura, Carducci, Forum Traiani, Lerici-Pea, Pontedilegno, Prestigiacomo, Saba, Strega, Tirinnanzi, Viareggio). His essays on poetics are collected in Distratti dal silenzio. Diario di poesia contemporanea, Quodlibet 2019.