With over 25 years of experience in translating from Italian into English, I have translated 200 books, including medical texts, books about fashion, photography, and architecture, travel guides, art catalogues, academic books, children’s books, and even cookbooks, among many others.
I was born in Boston and grew up in nearby Lexington. After receiving a B.A. in Italian from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University, I moved to Bologna, Italy, where I raised a family while teaching English Language and Translation at the University of Bologna and working as a freelance translator.
My translations include Venice and the Mongols by Nicola Di Cosmo and Lorenzo Pubblici, published by Princeton University Press, Guido Reni and Rome. Nature and Devotion by Francesca Cappelletti et al., published by Marsilio, Contemporary Japanese Posters by Gian Carlo Calza, published by Skira, and several of the essays and entries in Lorenzo Lotto. Portraits edited by Enrico Maria Dal Pozzolo and Miguel Falomir, published by Thames & Hudson. I am also the translator of the 900 plus entries included in the website of the Italian artist Giulio Paolini. This year I enjoyed translating Aldo Cazzullo’s The God of Our Fathers for HarperCollins (to be published in 2026). Along with numerous art and architecture books, I have also begun translating books for children. These include Who Hid the Stars? by Danio Miserocchi and Machiej Michno, illustrated by Valentina Gottardi, publisher Eerdmans, Marie Curie in the Land of Science by Irène Cohen-Janca, illustrated by Claudia Palmarucci, and published by Creative Editions, Just a Girl. A True Story of WWI by Lia Levi, published by HarperCollins, Chickenology. The Ultimate Encyclopedia by Barbara Sandri and Francesco Giubbilini, published by Princeton Architectural Press, Sea Wonders. The Octopus, the Cuttlefish, and the Squid by Mario Colombo and Francesco Tomasinelli, illustrated by Giulia De Amicis, published by Chronicle Books, among others.
I am also a winner of the Modern Language Association’s 2018 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Literary work into English for The Venetian Qur’an. A Renaissance Companion to Islam by Pier Mattia Tommasino, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. My translation of Lia Levi’s Just a Girl. A True Story of WWII, published by HarperCollins, was awarded the American Library Association’s Mildred L. Batchelder Award. The Batchelder Award is given to the most outstanding children’s book originating in a language other than English in a country other than the United States, and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States.
Although I travel to the United States several times a year, I live in Castenaso, just outside of Bologna, where I continue to work as a freelance translator.