Poetry. Bilingual Edition. Translated from the Italian by Anthony Molino and Chrstinia Viti. Mariangela Gualtieri is one of Italy's admired lyrical poets. BEAST OF JOY, with selections from her six collections of verse, is her first book in English. "Gualtieri has put on the clothes, or if you prefer, assumed the role of a female St. Francis, with a dedication that leaves no doubt regarding the urgency and depth of her poetry. The result is one of the most impassioned odes to the universe and to creation that one could hope to find in these days."--Professor Nicola Gardini, Oxford University "Mariangela Gualtieri is widely admired in ltaly for her inspired and dynamic performances of her own poems and of those many masterpieces of the tradition that she carries by heart within her. With BEAST OF JOY, Anthony Molino and Cristinia Viti introduce English-language readers to a generous selection of her meditations on the many seasons of her life: here she celebrates with fear, wonder and an ever-present sense of jubilation, the gravity of age, the lightness of the clouds."--Susan Stewart "BEAST OF JOY is a book that celebrates permanence: that which, in the throes of dissolution, echoes across time and demands of us the words whereby duration is made possible. In so doing, Gualtieri takes us into the very heart of nature and reveals its archetypes, supporting structures and foundations, all scripted in the vibrant palpitations of the lyrical force of her language."--Milo de Angelis "Mariangela Gualtieri is a poet of great incandescence who writes with searing honesty and compassion. A veteran of the theater, Gualtieri possesses a voice that can be thunderous and oracular, but also painfully intimate. BEAST OF JOY is a beautifully translated introduction to one of Italy's finest contemporary poets."--Olivia E. Sears, founder of The Center for the Art of Translation