Guia Risari

With the exception of her translations and essays, Guia Risari’s writings are usually accompanied by illustrations created by different artists: for example, the colors of Elisa Macellari for Il decamerino or Cecco Mariniello for Pane e oro and La macchina di Celestino, the collages of Marc Taeger for Achille il puntino, or the pencil drawings of Arianna Floris for La porta di Anne.

The interaction between writing and graphics and the supervision of the edition, typical of book arts, are also the very characteristics of Surrealism, especially feminine surrealism. Similarly, elements common to literary works of feminine Surrealism are the artists’ book, interdisciplinary features, the use of fairy-tales populated by magical creatures and cats regarded as alter egos, the attention given to nature and recourse to the imagination and writing in order to combat negativity and racial prejudice.

In general, Guia Risari’s writings for children are part of the new Italian literary model of the 21st century, through which children are urged into active and critical reading, encouraged to re-elaborate reality in a creative way. The child protagonist in Pane e oro, for example, manages to overcome her humble conditions with her imagination, with only the help of a piece of paper and a pencil.

In The document within the walls, written in English, Guia Risari probes Bassani’s narrative with accuracy, even verifying the number of those who died on the Lapide di via Mazzini, and utilizing an interpretive model that puts to good use the means of both literary and social criticism. The aim of her research is to examine anti-Semitism in Italy during the Fascist period as it is described in Romanzo di Ferrara, which should be regarded as “not a simple collection of stories, but rather a true document” about Jewish integration and Italian betrayal, about the Fascist persecution and the painful disillusion of the victims. The writer expresses doubts about the “myth of good Italians” that is based on the fact that the Italian persecution of Jews was less ferocious than that of the Nazis.

Il viaggio di Lea was Finalist in the "Premio Strega Ragazze e Ragazzi" 2016-17, Category +11.

Guia Risari is often the translator of her own works, which are published in various languages. Her studies, along with Surrealism, a sensitivity towards minorities and her regard for children are all re-elaborated in her writing, to which she has devoted herself since 2001.

Risari then took up an in-depth study of antisemitism, getting a master's degree in "Modern Jewish Studies" in 1997 from the University of Leeds. Beginning in 1998, she spent a long period in France to continue her studies in Montpellier, Toulouse and Paris. Between 1999 and 2008 she divided her time between the Sorbonne and Sapienza University of Rome. In the same period, she worked as a librarian, teacher, translator, journalist, writer and lecturer, while never abandoning her work as a volunteer. During the time spent abroad Guia always maintained a strong emotional bond with her family, to whom she gives credit for having stimulated her dialectic capacity.

Born in Milan, Guia Risari graduated from the Liceo Parini in 1990. She went on to study Ethics at university, getting her degree in 1995 with a thesis on Jean Améry, at the same time working as a journalist for l'Unità and as an educationalist; she also took part as a volunteer in the humanitarian mission at the refugee camp of Klana.

Guia Risari (14 August 1971) is an Italian writer.