The Odesa – UNESCO City of Literature Office continues to introduce Odessa residents to the project “Poetry in Cities of Literature.”
This publication in the series is dedicated to the City of Literature Milan (Italy), thanks to which this project became possible.
The project aims to create a cultural bridge of gratitude and cooperation, deepening understanding of the culture of the Cities of Literature and encouraging a two-way exchange. The initiative seeks to transform support into mutual enrichment, creating an environment for the free exchange of books, ideas, and traditions.
Beyond promoting literary art, the initiative highlights the crucial support UNESCO Cities of Literature provide: from festival invitations and translation assistance to artist residencies. These connections help Ukrainian authors cross borders, find new audiences, and preserve their creative voices on the global stage. At its core, “Poetry in the Cities of Literature” is about mutual cultural enrichment — fostering an open exchange where books, ideas, and traditions travel freely, inspiring and uniting people worldwide.
Poet of the Mlan City of Literature:
Paola Loreto was born in Bergamo (Italy) and teaches American Literature at the University of Milan. She is the author of six books of poetry, and several plaquettes and art-books, which have received various prizes and awards. Her poems have been translated into English, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish. She translates American poets. Her latest collection is Mieilari (My Lares, Marcos y Marcos, 2024).
In the next life
In the next life
we’ll have a house: you and me.
A vegetable patch, a garden.
(Black fig, red maple.)
Hands in the earth, on our
body. Inside a wood
fire, the wood whereon
we walk. White
but unvarnished.
In the life to come
we’ll have a baby
shaggy and dark
passionate, wild.
We won’t be afraid.
We’ll leave the end
to the others. We’ll begin.
fromhouses | stripped, translated by Lawrence Venuti, Toad Press, 2018
The project wascreated by the Odesa UNESCO City of Literature and being implemented with funds raised by Reykjavik City of Literature as part of the readings initiated by Milano City of Literature “Not Just Words” (Reading for Odessa) on February 24, 2024.
