Once upon a time, Antonella Lettieri was a student¹ of English and Russian in Bologna. Then, on a dark and stormy night, she moved to London and started working as a translator.² Little did she know that that was only just the beginning...³

¹ Education

2024 - APNEA: Reading and editing course at I libri degli altri with Francesca de Lena

2023 – Start Writing Fiction: Creative writing course at the National Centre for Writing with Melissa Fu

2022 – Bristol Translates: Literary translation summer school at the University of Bristol with Howard Curtis

2010 – MA in Comparative Literatures and Post-Colonial Cultures awarded by the University of Bologna, Italy (with distinction)

2008 – BCLT Summer School in literary translation at the University of East Anglia with Susanna Basso and Giles Foden

2007 – BA in Foreign Languages awarded by the University of Bologna, Italy (with distinction)

² Selected Translations

2025 – The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre (UK: Foundry Editions)

2025 – All That is Left of Life by Roberta Recchia (UK: Dialogue Books) 

2024 – Your Little Matter by Maria Grazia Calandrone (UK: Foundry Editions)

³ Prizes

2026 - Currently longlisted for the International Booker Prize

My translation of The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre is currently longlisted for the International Booker Prize. The judges’ citation reads: “The Duke is the story of a feud between two men set in an Italian village in the Dolomites. The build-up of tension as the quarrel gradually escalates is electric, as each move they make turns the heat up one more notch. Anyone who’s been in a dispute will recognise the reluctance to step away from the fight. The characters that the author paints are wonderfully evocative, including many of the minor figures who form part of the village. The village itself is one of the strongest ‘characters’ and we loved the feeling of claustrophobia of the place as the narrative unfolds. Packed full of plot twists, this is storytelling at its best.”

2026 - Winner of the 2025 TA First Translation Prize

My translation of Your Little Matter by Maria Grazia Calandrone won the 2025 TA First Translation Prize, which is shared with my editor Richard Village. The judges’ citation reads: “Your Little Matter by Maria Grazia Calandrone is itself a form of translation. Calandrone reconstructs her mother's story from fragments - anecdotes, archival scraps, inherited objects - reading into the silences to tell not only her mother's story but also the story of countless women driven to desperation by social violence. In this compassionate act of resurrection, Calandrone lifts these lives out of shame. Antonella Lettieri's translation mirrors this delicate process: her thoughtful word choices capture the ambiguity and weight of Calandrone's poetic choices, and she navigates the tonal shifts between investigative journalism and personal revelation with the fluidity and confidence of an experienced translator. We are grateful to her, and to her editor Richard Village, for bringing this remarkable work to English-language readers.”

2026 - Winner of the 2025 Oran Robert Perry Burke Award for Literary Translation

My co-translation of Piera Ventre’s short story The Ghosts of Munfrà (with Seán McDonagh) won the Oran Robert Perry Burke Award for Literary Translation, which is presented each year by The Southern Review in recognition of exceptional work that appeared in the magazine during the previous year.

2024 - PEN/Heim Grant for the English Translation of Italian Literature

My translation of Your Little Matter by Maria Grazia Calandrone was awarded the 2024 PEN/Heim Grant for the English Translation of Italian Literature. An excerpt from the judges’ citation reads: “[Your Little Matter] is a haunting, visceral examination of the failures of Italian society toward young mothers, young families, welfare, and mental health, one which Antonella Lettieri brings into English with the same depths of understanding and compassion that the author shows to her own mother; a translation which is precise, careful, and steeped in the warmth of empathy.”

2023 - Winner of the 2023 John Dryden Translation Competition

My translation of an excerpt from the short story The War of the Murazzi by Enrico Remmert was awarded first prize in the 2023 John Dryden Translation Competition, sponsored by the British Comparative Literature Association and the British Centre for Literary Translation.

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