Vanni Bianconi (1977) was born in Locarno and currently lives in London. He is the founder and art director of the “Babel Festival of Literature and Translation” and is also among the creators of the multilingual magazine Specimen: The Babel Review of Translations. He has translated works of writers from many different languages, and in a similar manner, his own works have been translated into Russian, Polish, Georgian, English, Spanish, Arabic, French, German, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Indian and Croatian. Single-volume editions of his poetry have been published in Polish (“Wymówisz moje imię”, publ. by Slowo/obaz terytoria, 2016) and Russian (“Tot Kto Ectb Tbi”, publ. by Russkij inmpuls, 2018), and he is looking forward to the Georgian and Mexican editions, which are pending publication. His debut poetry compilation “Faura del Morti” (The Fear of the Dead) was published in Ottavo magazine in 2014. The publishing house Casagrande has released the following poetry books by Bianconi: “Ora Prima: Sei Poesie Lunghe” (The First Hour: Six Long Poems, 2008, winner the Schiller prize), “Il Passo dell’Uomo” (The Step of Man, 2012, among the finalists in the 2016 European Poet of Freedom) and “Sono due le parole che rimano in ore” (There are two words that remain in these hours, 2017, recipient of the 2018 Tirinnanzi prize). The publishing house Humbolt Books also released his narrative essay “London as a Second Language” (2016) and the short story Loveless House, which was featured in the 2018 anthology “Lucifer over London”.