Mr. Enrico Palandri

Enrico Palandri | read more
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Enrico Palandri
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Formerly a language coach at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Enrico Palandri is now writer in residence at London University.The Way Back, a best seller in Italy, has been a success throughout Europe.

Enrico Palandri

Born in Venice in 1956, Enrico Palandri published Boccalone in 1979, a manifesto of a young generation that gained him acclaim in Italy.Formerly a language coach at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Enrico Palandri is now writer in residence at London University.The Way Back, a best seller in Italy, has been a success throughout Europe.

Further information about the Centre and about its activities is available from its Director Enrico Palandri.

Dr Enrico Palandri Administrator +44 020 7679 7784

Enrico Palandri"At the age of fifty, it's pleasing to be able to say you are a reader and a writer."Enrico Palandri, Italian novelist and writer in residence at UCL Italian, was working part time as a Language and Literature Assistant at the university when the translation of his third novel ‘La via del ritorno' (‘The Way Back') shot him into the cultural limelight in 1993.The department was quick to recognise the pedagogical asset on its hands, finding external funding to create a writer in residence position, which Mr Palandri retained on becoming a Reader in Italian Literature.

"Three-quarters of my teaching input on the Contemporary Italian Novel course comes from the fact that I am a writer," says Mr Palandri.Each year, he guides finalists through the development of the Italian novel from the post-war generation to the present day (though he refrains from discussing his own work through a combination of modesty and a concern that the students express their true feelings about the writing they are presented with).

At the start, students tend to view the course as a contract: "They are very concerned initially about individual achievement, what they need to produce in their final essay [the only form of assessment of the course] but with time they start to appreciate the communal effort, the exchange of ideas, that is necessary to good writing.I think I help them understand that you need to find an authentic voice, whether you are writing fiction or essays."

Mr Palandri himself has published two essays on fiction writing, as a result of discussions that have arisen during the course.That teaching feeds back into his creative work is, he believes, testament to the quality of study at the department.A regular teacher and speaker in the US, Europe and Venice, he finds UCL the most intellectually rewarding milieu that he is engaged in.
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Image 1: The role of writer in residence at UCL Italian was created for Enrico Palandri