Thomas Peterson, professor of Romance languages, recently received the 2017 Raiziss/de Palchi Fellowship for his work translating Franco Fortini’s poetry.
Established in 1995, this $25,000 American Poets Prize is given by the Academy of American Poets for the translation into English of a significant work of modern Italian poetry. The fellowship is given to enable an American translator to travel, study or otherwise advance a significant work-in-progress. The winning translator also receives a five-week residency at the American Academy in Rome.
Peterson is the author of Petrarch’s ‘Fragmenta’: The Narrative and Theological Unity of ‘Rerum vulgarium fragmenta’ (University of Toronto Press, 2016) and The Ethical Muse of Franco Fortini (University Press of Florida, 1997), the first major study of Fortini in English. He received a master’s degree in Italian at the University of California, Berkeley, and a doctorate at Brown University.