Erri De Luca

Erri De Luca is a writer, novelist, story-teller, essayist, translator and poet. He has published more than 60 books, numerous collections of short stories and poems, translated in more than 30 languages. His grandmother was Ruby Hammond, an American woman who came in Italy in the first years of past century. His name, Erri, is an Italian version of Harry, his uncle's name. Erri De Luca started writing at age 6, and never stopped. His first novel, "Not Here, Not Now", was published in Italy in 1989. He is a translator from Ancient Hebrew and Yiddish, and for this reasons he is appreciated for his translation's work of several books of the Ancient Covenant. He was awarded the France Culture Prize in 1994 for his "Aceto, arcobaleno", the Laure Bataillon Award in 2002 for "Tre cavalli" (Three horses), and the Femina Etranger for "Montedidio" (God's Mountain). In 2010 he was bestowed with the German International Literary Petrarca Award. He appeared in a cameo role in the movie "L'isola", by Costanza Quadriglio, and made his debut as a screenwriter and leading actor in the short film "Di la' del vetro" (Beyond the Glass), presented at the Venice Film Festival in 2011. In "The nightshift belongs to the stars" , a screenplay written by himself, he also plays a little role Actually he lives in the country near Roma. De Luca has been a member of the jury at the Cannes Festival in 2003. He wrote and starred in several plays including the theatrical drama "In viaggio con Aurora" (Traveling with Aurora). De Luca contributes regularly to several newspapers and magazines. He is a passionate mountain climber.