Dr Livia Franchini
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Livia is a writer and translator of poetry and fiction. Her research focuses on feminist writing and experimental form.
Livia Franchini is a writer and translator from Tuscany, Italy. She is the author of a poetry pamphlet, Our Available Magic (Makina Books, 2019) and a novel, Shelf Life (Doubleday, 2019) and has translated Natalia Ginzburg, James Tiptree Jr. and Michael Donaghy among many others.
Livia's writing and translations have been published internationally. Selected magazine publications include: The London Magazine, AnOther Gaze, The Tangerine, English PEN, The Quietus and 3 a.m., among many others. Notable contributions to anthologies include: Spells: 21st Century Occult Poetry (Ignota Books), On Bodies (3 of Cups), Wretched Strangers (Boiler House Press) and Le Visionarie (Nero Edizioni).
Academic qualifications
- PhD Creative Writing, Goldsmiths 2021
- MA Creative Writing, Royal Holloway 2012
- BA Hons Drama & English, Goldsmiths 2010
Teaching and supervision
Livia has taught creative writing and translation both inside and outside academia, in the United Kingdom and internationally. Previous to teaching creative writing at Goldsmiths, she has worked with Royal Holloway, Bangor University, University of Hertfordshire, London College of Creative Media, CityLit, Escuela de Escritores (Spain), DeBuren (Belgium) and Wintertuin (Netherlands).
Research interests
Livia's key critical interest is in feminist literary studies on women’s experimental writing. She has written on Virginia Woolf, Anna Kavan and Lydia Davis, investigating the intersection between textual and sexual politics in Jacob’s Room, Who Are You? and The End of the Story.
As a prose writer, she is particularly interested in exploring the narrative conventions that articulate female representation in postfeminist mainstream fiction and society, and in understanding how the political potential of fiction can be harnessed through formal innovation, to actively reformulate the relations between writer-reader-character, individualities and collectivities.
Additional, ongoing interests of her practice-based research are collaborative poetry, translation as creative practice and representations of Southern Europe in English-language fiction.
Featured publications
2020:
Gusci
Novel (tr. by Veronica Raimo), winner of Premio Letterario Pisa 2020
2020:
Shelf Life
Novel
2019:
Our Available Magic
Poetry Pamphlet
Professional projects
Livia has performed from her work extensively, both in the UK and internationally. Selected appearances include: Faber Social, Standon Calling, Lowlands (The Netherlands), Hay Festival Segovia (Spain), Zona Noua (Romania), Passaporta Festival (Belgium) and Pisa Book Festival (Italy). She regularly collaborates with other practitioners, across languages and forms.
Livia is one of the founding members of FILL - Festival of Italian Literature in London and sits on the editorial board for Goldsmiths Press, where she co-edits the creative writing alumni series Goldsmiths Shorts. She has previously acted as fiction editor for independent publishing house Big Lucks (USA) and in 2016 co-founded multilingual journal CORDA - a magazine about friendship in the time of new borders.
From 2014 to 2017 she curated Goldsmiths' award-winning live literature series Lit Live, before moving on to coordinating the Goldsmiths Prize for fiction.
Conferences and talks
2020:
Livia Franchini: Reading and Q&A
Emergent Fiction Writers with York Centre for Writing
2020:
Love Island: Feminism, Postmodernism and Late Capitalism
Women’s Studies Mst at the University of Oxford: Feminist Thinking Seminars series
2020:
That Difficult First Novel
Goldsmiths Writers' Centre Presents series
2019:
Found in Translation
Festival of Italian Literature in London
2018:
Sisters of the Revolution: Translating Feminist Fiction into Italian
In collaboration with Goldsmiths' MA in Translation Studies