Alda Merini

Black and white photograph of Italian poet and writer Alda Merini smoking

Renowned and beloved in her native Italy, poet Alda Merini’s numerous books include The Presence of Orpheus, Fear of God, Roman Wedding, Diary of an Other, and Love Lessons (2009),a selection of  poems translated into English by Susan Stewart. Institutionalized for mental illness for nearly two decades, Merini’s later poems meditate on illness, nature, and myth. Merini was twice nominated for a Nobel Prize during her lifetime, by both the French Academy and Italian PEN. She died in 2009.