Broadsides

“The only possibility of regaining one’s balance is to face the whole problem, for all these discoveries, all these inquiries lead only in one direction: to make man admit that he is nothing, absolutely nothing—and that he must put an end to the narcissism on which he relies in order to imagine . . .

Tell us about your relationship to writing: How it began, and where it’s headed. I’m going to be very literal about this because this is a big question. For me writing started in kindergarten. We had a great teacher—we called her “Lupita”—who taught us how to read and write with the poetry . . .

Editor’s note: The text here is an edited transcription of a larger conversation conducted over Zoom, which appears in full below. Melpignano reads her translations of Leonardo Tonini’s poems “6.” from [25:52 – 26:27] and “12.” from [28:16 – 28:40]. Music credit to Nicholaas Stulting, “Everyday.” Introduce yourself, your relationship to writing . . .