To commemorate the 700th anniversary of the death of the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri, Chameleon Press will publish a new collection of poetry in which contemporary poets from Asia interpret themes of Dante’s opus with a particular focus on Beatrice, the object of Dante’s youthful love, his muse and guide. No one walks alone; Dante didn’t and pays tribute to Beatrice in La Divina Commedia. But we are first introduced to her in that work of Dante’s youth, La Vita Nuova.
The project forms part of the Italian Cultural Institute’s Dante programme for 2021 and is undertaken in collaboration with Baptist University of Hong Kong. The new anthology’s co-editors are: Tammy Ho Lai-Ming, David McKirdy and Angelo Paratico, all writers with extensive roots in the poetry and literary circles of Hong Kong, Asia and (in the case of Paratico), Italy as well. The book will be launched and presented at literary events in Hong Kong in 2021.
Selected poems will also be part of the musical composition competition “Unique Forms of Continuity in Space 2021”, again focusing on Dante.
The working title of the new collection is A Dante Companion: Beatrice replies.
Previous anthologies published by Chameleon Press include Quixotica: Poems East of La Mancha, published in conjunction with the Consulate General of Spain in Hong Kong and Macau as part of “Cervantes 400” and desde Hong Kong: Poets in Conversation with Octavio Paz, part of the project to raise awareness of the Mexican poet on his centenary.
The call for submissions, including background information, may be read at this link.
Timeline:
1 December 2020: Submissions open
15 February 2021: Submissions close
approx. 1 June 2021: Publication
