Rebecca McGuire-Snieckus
Invitation to contribute: Book Memory of Francesco Benozzo
Posted on September 27, 2025
Message from Antonella Riem, Udine University:
Dear friends
Our beloved friend Francesco Benozzo, poet, singer, musician, and Bard, as well as our candidate for
the Nobel Prize in Literature Professor Francesco Benozzo, suddenly passed away on 22nd March
2025, aged 56 years, leaving the world bereft of his intent scholarship and his intense poetry and
song. This is an immense loss for all of us ‒ his friends, colleagues, and the wider world of scholarship
and art. In honour of his remarkable legacy and in celebration of the beauty, light, and truth he brought
into the world, we intend to publish a book commemorating his brilliant, original, and thoughtprovoking work.
Born on 22 February 1969, Francesco was an internationally appreciated and admired Italian
lyric epic-poet, harpist, composer, singer and bard, ethnophilologist (a discipline he founded),
dialectologist, ethnographer and anthropologist. His poetic work is extraordinary, penetrating and
vast, centred on the intense and diffused exploration of places, with their transcultural poetic
mappings of the self and the world, across the Apennines, Galicia, Wales, the Lake District and the
Faroe Islands.
the Nobel Prize in Literature Professor Francesco Benozzo, suddenly passed away on 22nd March
2025, aged 56 years, leaving the world bereft of his intent scholarship and his intense poetry and
song. This is an immense loss for all of us ‒ his friends, colleagues, and the wider world of scholarship
and art. In honour of his remarkable legacy and in celebration of the beauty, light, and truth he brought
into the world, we intend to publish a book commemorating his brilliant, original, and thoughtprovoking work.
Born on 22 February 1969, Francesco was an internationally appreciated and admired Italian
lyric epic-poet, harpist, composer, singer and bard, ethnophilologist (a discipline he founded),
dialectologist, ethnographer and anthropologist. His poetic work is extraordinary, penetrating and
vast, centred on the intense and diffused exploration of places, with their transcultural poetic
mappings of the self and the world, across the Apennines, Galicia, Wales, the Lake District and the
Faroe Islands.
He was officially nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature from 2015 on proposal of the
Pen Club International1, and, since 2024, also on initiative of the Partnership Studies Group
international (UNIUD) 2 and the Global Academy of the Liberal Arts (GALA, Bath Spa University,
United Kingdom)3
.
The international series ALL (Forum Editrice universitaria) has published the very recent bilingual
edition of his poems, Sciamanica. Poemi dai confini dei mondi/Poems from the borders of the worlds
(2023); a “defense of poetry”, The Ridge and the Song. Sailing the Archipelago of Poetry (2022); and
an original poetic and musical translation of the ancient Welsh Bards, Poeti della Marea. Canti
Pen Club International1, and, since 2024, also on initiative of the Partnership Studies Group
international (UNIUD) 2 and the Global Academy of the Liberal Arts (GALA, Bath Spa University,
United Kingdom)3
.
The international series ALL (Forum Editrice universitaria) has published the very recent bilingual
edition of his poems, Sciamanica. Poemi dai confini dei mondi/Poems from the borders of the worlds
(2023); a “defense of poetry”, The Ridge and the Song. Sailing the Archipelago of Poetry (2022); and
an original poetic and musical translation of the ancient Welsh Bards, Poeti della Marea. Canti
1https://web.archive.org/web/20170509144935/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/who-deserves.html.
2 https://partnershipstudiesgroup.uniud.it/?page_id=1361&lang=it.
3 https://gala.network/members/rebeccams/buddyblog/my-posts/6051/.
You are invited to contribute to a book in his honour.
The submission deadlines have been extended to better accommodate your participation.
The book is scheduled for publication in February 2026.
Please submit the following materials by October 31, 2025:
- A title and abstract (maximum 100 words) for your contribution.
- A brief biographical statement (maximum 100 words).
The deadline for the final submission of your complete piece is December 15, 2025.
The provisional title of this volume is I am a wind-break barrier / the ripped-up sail of a ship. In Memory of Francesco Benozzo, Scholar, Poet and Bard. The volume will be published in the series ALL (directed by Antonella Riem, Udine, Forum).
Possible issues and areas of investigation may include:
1) Romance philology and linguistics.
2) Ethnophilology and world literatures.
3) Historical and Indo-European linguistics (with particular reference to the Celtic area).
4) Theoretical and applied semantics.
5) Dialectology.
6) Anthropology of literature.
7) Contemporary Italian poetry.
8) World music and performing arts.
9) Dissidence of the intellectual and anarchist thought
Of course, you are free to suggest any other topic that you consider pertinent, in consideration not only of Francesco’s wide range of interests and fields of research, but also of his desire to break constrictions and limitations, scientific, poetic and human.
We welcome critical essays, anecdotes, memories, stories, poems, photographs that you feel are connected with Francesco’s critical work and personal life.
N.B. LANGUAGES: WE ACCEPT SUBMISSIONS IN ITALIAN AND ENGLISH. PIECES IN OTHER LANGUAGES ARE ALSO ACCEPTED, PROVIDED THEY ARE ACCOMPANIED BY A CONCISE ENGLISH SUMMARY.
WORD LIMIT FOR ESSAYS – between 3000 (20000 characters spaces included) and 5000 words (30000 characters spaces included) in length and should include abstracts in English, MEMOIRS and STORIES, POEMS maximum 2000 words. We also welcome photos.
Contributors will be sent format guidelines and deadlines on notice of their wish to participate. Please also explicit in what form you intend to participate.
Please, let us know if you would like to participate in this volume and kindly circulate this letter to anyone you think may be interested. Thank you.
Please send your emails to:
I look forward to hearing from you,
Antonella
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