Author(s)

Laura Liberale

Description

“I do like I do in the tall grass, more animal-me than much else” (Ada Limón) : in this selection of poems by Laura Liberale the “animal-me” keeps moving and shape-shifting in the “tall grass” of post-humanism. By entering these works, readers are challenged to explore a dimension in which the thin veil between animal and human, life and death becomes an unstable, metamorphic mist. Liberale, a scholar of thanatology who holds a Ph.D. in South Asian studies and a dedicated animal activist, draws from her research and background to confront her readers with different ways to understand life, its meaning, and its value.

Laura Liberale is a writer and death studies scholar. She holds an M.A. in Philosophy and a Ph.D in South Asian Studies. She currently teaches in the M.A. Program in Death Studies & the End of Life (University of Padova), where she offers classes in philosophy, creative writing, and medical humanities. Her creative work has been acknowledged in numerous venues, both for poetry and fiction, and has appeared in many journals and anthologies. She is the author of three novels: Tanatoparty (Death Party, Meridiano Zero, 2009), Madreferro (Mother-Iron, Perdisa Pop, 2012), and Planctus (Meridiano Zero, 2014). Her poetry volumes include Sari. Poesie per la figlia (Sari. Poems for my Daughter, d’If, 2009), Ballabile terreo (Livid Dance Song, d’If, 2011, Mazzacurati-Russo Prize), La disponibilità della nostra carne (The Availability of Our Flesh, Oèdipus, 2017, Lorenzo Montano Prize), and Unità stratigrafiche (Stratigraphic Unities, Arcipelago Itaca, 2020, Bologna in Lettere 2021 and finalist, Premio Napoli 2021). Among her scholarly volumes are I mille nomi di Gangā (The Thousand Names of Gangā, Edizioni dell’Orso, 2003), I Devīnāmastotra hindū. Gli inni purānici dei nomi della Dea (The Hindu Devīnāmastotra. The Puranic Hymns and the Name of the Goddess, Edizioni dell’Orso, 2007), I nomi di Śiva (The Names of Śiva, Cleup, 2018), Visioni infernali dell’India (Infernal Visions of India, Padova UP, 2021), and Rinuncia (Renunciation, AnimaMundi, 2021). She was included among the authors collected in Nuovi poeti italiani 6 , (Einaudi, 2012).

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ISBN 978-1-946328-35-9