Antonella Lettierie on Translating 'The Duke'!

In this episode of Harshaneeyam, we journey into the heart of contemporary Italian literature with Antonella Lettieri, a rising star in the world of literary translation. Based in London but deeply rooted in her Italian heritage, Lettieri has quickly established herself as a vital conduit for some of Italy’s most challenging and lyrical modern voices.

Her recent accolades are a testament to her skill: she was the National Centre for Writing Emerging Translator Mentee for Italian in 2023 and won the prestigious John Dryden Translation Competition in the same year. Most notably, her translation of Mattia Melchiorre’s The Duke has been longlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize.

A Childhood Between the Pages

Lettieri’s path to translation began with a childhood obsession with reading. "I was the classical child that is never seen without a book in her hands," she recalls, noting that her mother, an elementary school teacher, fostered this love by never saying "no" to a request for a new book.

This early immersion in storytelling naturally evolved into a fascination with how stories travel across borders. For Lettieri, translation is not merely a linguistic exercise but a way of "voicing" the human condition across cultural divides.

The Monumental Challenge of "The Duke"

The centerpiece of Lettieri’s recent work is The Duke (Il Duca), a novel that blends historical weight with contemporary existential dread. The story centers on a protagonist who returns to his ancestral home—a decaying villa in a remote mountain village—to claim his title as the last "Duke" of a fading lineage.

Navigating the "Mountain" of Prose

Translating Melchiorre presented unique challenges. The author’s style is characterized by:

• Rich, Archaic Vocabulary: Melchiorre uses a specific "mountain" register that is both rugged and highly sophisticated.
  
  

• Complex Rhythms: The prose often mimics the winding, difficult terrain of the Italian Alps.
  
  

• Atmospheric Density: The villa itself acts as a character, described with a "fateful phosphorescence".
  
  

Lettieri explains that her goal was to maintain the "weight" of the original Italian while ensuring the English version felt just as grounded and atmospheric. She read a passage during the podcast that captures this perfectly:

"The Villa dei Mieravi... has its own fateful phosphorescence that makes it not too different from a naked rock... It would really look like a rock if it wasn't produced by a rigorous geometry".

Maria Grazia Calandrone: Translating Trauma and Love

Beyond the rugged landscapes of The Duke, Lettieri has also tackled the deeply personal and poetic prose of Maria Grazia Calandrone. Her translation of Your Little Matter (Dove non mi hai portata) won the 2025 TFST Translation Prize and was awarded a PEN Grant for Italian Literature.

The book is an investigation into the life of the author’s biological mother, who abandoned her as an infant before dying by suicide. Lettieri had to balance the clinical, investigative tone of the "dossier" sections with the soaring, lyrical beauty of Calandrone’s tributes to her mother.

The Craft: Mentorship and Precision

Lettieri attributes much of her success to the power of mentorship. Working under the guidance of seasoned translators through the National Centre for Writing allowed her to refine her "ear" for the subtle shifts in tone that define high-tier literary fiction.

She views the translator as an "invisible actor," one who must inhabit the voice of the author so completely that the reader forgets they are reading a translation.