We Want Everything shortlisted for the American Literary Translators Association's 2017 Italian Prose in Translation Award

Matt Holden's translation of Nanni Balestrini's We Want Everything, published by Verso in 2016, has been shortlisted, alongside three other titles, for the American Literary Translators Association's 2017 Italian Prose in Translation Award. 

Starting in 2015, the Italian Prose in Translation Award (IPTA) recognizes the importance of contemporary Italian prose (fiction and literary non-fiction) and promotes the translation of Italian works into English. This prize is awarded annually to a translator of a recent work of Italian prose (fiction or literary non-fiction). This year’s judges are Elizabeth Harris, Jim Hicks, and Olivia Sears.

The award-winning book and translator for 2017 will receive a $5,000 cash prize, and the award will be announced during ALTA’s annual conference, ALTA40: Reflections/Refractions, held this year at the Radisson Blu Minneapolis Downtown in Minneapolis, MN from October 5-8, 2017. If you can’t join us in person, follow our Twitter (@LitTranslate) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/literarytranslators) for the announcement of the winners!

Wrought in spare and measured prose, Balestrini’s novel depicts an explosive uprising during Italy's "hot autumn" of 1969. A sampler containing the book's first two chapters is available for free download. 

We Want Everything

by Nanni Balestrini

Introduction by Rachel Kushner

It was the Autumn of 1969, and Italy exploded. Across the north of the country, factory workers stormed out on strike, demanding better pay and working conditions. The slogan “We Want Everything” r...

Tristano

by Nanni Balestrini

Introduction by Umberto Eco

Translated by Mike Harakis

This book is unique as no other novel can claim to be: one of 109,027,350,432,000 possible variations of the same work of fiction.Inspired by the legend of Tristan and Isolde, Tristano was firs...

The Unseen

by Nanni Balestrini

Preface by Antonio Negri

Translated by Liz Heron

For a brief explosive period in the mid-1970s, the young and the unemployed of Italy’s cities joined the workers in an unexpectedly militant movement known simply as Autonomy (Autonomia). Its “poli...

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