Anna Zimbone

Anna Zimbone was born in Catania, Sicily. After graduating from the Faculty of Philosophy at the local university, with a thesis on ancient Greek, she dedicated herself to the study of medieval and later modern Greek literature. Her research primarily focused on medieval and modern Greek philology, promoting the study of the relationships between Greek works and authors and their Western sources (such as 19th-century Greek translations of Dante, the chivalric romance "Florius and Platziaflore" with the Florentine "Cantare di Florio e Biancifiore," Kornaros with Ariosto and dell' Anguillara, Roides with Spanbeim, Casti, Leopardi, Michelet, and others). Besides translating some narratives and the preface of "The Papess Joanne" by Emmanuel Roides into Italian, she worked on translations and studies, particularly focusing on Iakovos Polylas, Alexandros Papadiamantis, Konstantinos Theotokis, and Georgios Vizyinos. Her Italian rendition of Georgios Vizyinos's stories ("Gheorghios Viziinos 'L'unico viaggio della sua vita e altre storie'," Aiora, Athens 2001) was awarded the 2002 State Prize for Translation of a Work of Greek Literature into a Foreign Language. In 2016, she received the same award for her Italian translation of Emmanuel Roides's "Psychology of a Syros Husband" (Lussografica editions). Among contemporary Greek authors, she showed particular interest in Giorgos Ioannou, about whom she wrote an essay (Catania 1994). She also translated a selection of his short stories (Ghiorgos Ioannu "Le strida, In periferia," Aletheia, Florence 1994). For several years, she taught Modern Greek Language and Literature as a professor at the School of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Catania, where she currently teaches Medieval and Modern Greek Philology and Modern Greek Language and Culture in the Department of Humanities at the Faculty of Philosophy.