Nicoletta Vallorani
Nicoletta Vallorani is a novelist, translator (from English), and an academic. She was born in 1959 in Offida (Marche) and graduated in foreign languages at the University of Pescara with a dissertation on three contemporary American science fiction writers (Vonda McIntyre, Joanna Russ, and James Tiptree Jr.). She is Professor of Contemporary English Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Milan, where she now lives.
Vallorani’s first novel, Il cuore finto di DR, published by Mondadori in1993, was awarded the Premio Urania for science fiction. She remains the only woman to have ever won this prize. She has since published numerous novels and short stories, most of which are characterized by an original blend of science fiction and crime fiction, or, more correctly, cyberpunk fiction mixed with specific noir elements. She also writes novels for children. Her noir novel Le madri cattive (Salani, 2012) was awarded the Premio Maria Teresa Di Lascia in 2012. Many of her books have been translated into English and French.
Vallorani is also the author of numerous scholarly articles and books, specializing in visual studies, gender studies, and queer studies. She publishes regularly in the online journal Altre Modernità, of which she is Co-Director, and coordinates the project ‘Docucity. Documentare la città’, on documentary filmmaking and urban geographies. Finally, she is a member of the literary blog Le parole e le cose2 – Letteratura e realtà for which she regularly writes blogposts.
Compiled by Monica Jansen (Utrecht)
Novels
Il cuore finto di DR (Milan: Mondadori, Urania, 1992; Lugano: Todaro Editore, Meteore, 2003)
Dentro la notte e ciao (Bologna: Granata Press, 1995)
La fidanzata di Zorro (Milan: Marcos y Marcos, 1996)
Dreambox (Milan: Mondadori, 1997)
I misti di Sur (Rome: Adnkronos Libri, 1998)
Cuore meticcio (Milan: Marcos y Marcos, 1998)
Darjee (Rome: Adnkronos Libri, 1999)
Le sorelle sciacallo (Rome: Derive e Approdi, 1999; Milan: Edizioni del Gattaccio, 2017)
Eva (Turin: Einaudi, 2002; New edition with three unpublished short stories, Modena: Zona 42, 2021)
Visto dal cielo (Turin: Einaudi, 2004)
Cordelia (Palermo: Flaccovio, 2006)
Lapponi e criceti (Milan: Edizioni Ambiente, 2010)
Le madri cattive (Milan: Salani, 2011)
Avrai i miei occhi (Modena: Zona 42, 2020)
Noi siamo campo di battaglia (Modena: Zona 42, 2022)
Children’s Books
Luca De Luca detto Lince (San Dorligo della Valle, TS: Edizioni EL, La casa del giallo, 1997)
Pagnotta e i suoi fratelli (San Dorligo della Valle, TS: Edizioni EL, La casa del giallo, 1997)
Achab e Azul (San Dorligo della Valle, TS: Edizioni EL, I corti, 1997)
Un mistero cirillico (San Dorligo della Valle, TS: Edizioni EL, La casa del giallo, 1998)
Occhi di lupo (San Dorligo della Valle, TS: Edizioni EL, I corti, 2000; Ascoli Piceno: Senzapatria, 2010)
[with Barbara Garlaschelli]: La mappa del male (Milan: The Walt Disney Company Italia-Libri, 2000)
Come una balena (Milan: Salani, 2000)
La fatona (Milan: Salani, 2002)
Il nome segreto della guerra (Milan: Salani, 2006)
Sulla sabbia di Sur (Florence: Editpress, 2011)
Short Stories
‘Amnios III’ (Pulp, 11, 1985, pp. 41-47)
‘Contrappunto’ (Dimensione Cosmica, 3, 1985, pp. 15-16)
‘La casa di Alegre’ (Dimensione Cosmica, 11, 1987, pp. 50-55); in Stelle dell’Orsa Minore ed. by Monica Lanfranco (Chieti: Marino Solfanelli Editore, Minas Tirith 7, 1989, pp. 175-184)
‘Alice’ in Pianeta Italia. Gli autori della World SF Italia ed. by Lino Aldani and Ugo Malaguti (Bologna: Perseo Libri, Narratori Europei di Science Fiction 1, 1989, pp. 245-252)
‘Morgana’ (Oltre…, 1.1, 1991, pp. 46-49)
‘Sintar’ in AAVV: 38 racconti italiani (e non) di genere fantastico (Montepulciano: Edizioni Donchisciotte, 1991, pp. 76-85; Bologna: Perseo Libri, Futuro Europa 11, 1992, pp. 88-97)
‘Acqua’ (Incubatoio 16. Rivista di letteratura in embrione, 2, 1996, Speciale Mystfest): INCUBATOIO 16 - numeroDUE (arcobaleno.com)
‘Choukra’ in Fantastorie dal terzo pianeta: nuovi racconti italiani nel segno di ‘Carmilla’ ed. by Valerio Evangelisti (Rome: Coop Editoriale L’Altra Italia, 1997, pp. 9-22)
‘Snuff Movie’ in Tutti i denti del mostro sono perfetti ed. by Valerio Evangelisti and Giuseppe Lippi (Milan: Mondadori, Urania, 1997, pp. 278-289; Milan: Piccola Biblioteca Oscar Mondadori, 2004, pp. 267-277)
‘Jalousie’ in Sesso alieno ed. by Paolo Bianchi and Alessandro Riva (Milan: ES, 1998, pp. 143-156)
‘Libero in freezer’ (A. Rivista Anarchica, 245, 1998, pp. 37-39)
‘Cactus’ in AAVV: La mano sinistra del potere. Racconti di fantascienza ed. by Maurizia Rossella (Padua: Calusca Edizioni, 1999, pp. 55-62)
‘Bianco natal’ in Delitti sotto l’albero ed. by Tecla Dozio (Lugano: Todaro Editore, Impronte 3, 1999, pp. 113-125)
‘Scarafaggi neri’ in Capodanno nero ed. by Tecla Dozio (Lugano: Todaro Editore, Impronte 5, 2000, pp. 189-203)
‘Cybo’ in Io, erotica ed. by Jean-Marc Ligny (Rome: Fanucci, 2001, pp. 43-52)
‘Cielo rosso’ in AAVV: Epifania di sangue (Lugano: Todaro Editore, Impronte 7, 2001, pp. 165-177)
‘Shangri-La’ in Raccontare Trieste 2001 ed. by Valerio Fiandra and Pietro Spirito (Trieste: Comune di Trieste, 2001, pp. 47-55)
‘Pink Valentine’ in AAVV: Innamorati da morire ed. by Tecla Dozio (Lugano: Todaro Editore, Impronte 10, 2002, pp. 163-81)
‘Sputo e il giustiziere’ (Micromega. Almanacco di letteratura, 3, 2002, pp. 62-77)
‘Taboulhe’ in Speciale Carmilla. Il futuro nel sangue. 19 fantapologhi sul Potere ed. by Vittorio Catani (May 2003, pp. 368-276); also in Loriano Macchiavelli et al.: Lama e trama. Storie noir in punta di coltello (Civitella in Valdi Chiana, Arezzo: Zona Editrice, 2004, pp. 29-39)
Due monologhi: I gemelli BumBum e La bambina dimezzata (Carmilla on-line, 17 July 2003): https://www.carmillaonline.com/2003/07/17/nicoletta-vallorani-due-monologhi/
‘Il principio di Dio’ in AAVV: Donne al futuro (Palermo: Dario Flaccovio, 2005, pp. 10-29)
‘Gli invisibili’ in Incubi. Nuovo horror italiano ed. by Raul Montanari (Milan: Baldini Castoldi Dalai, 2007, pp. 309-328)
‘Le morti pulite’ in Anime nere ed. by Alan D. Altieri (Milan: Mondadori, 2007, pp. 107-128)
Si muore bambini (Bologna: Perdisa Pop, 2008)
‘Ali’ in Alle signore piace il nero ed. by Barbara Garlaschelli and Nicoletta Vallorani (Milan: Sperling & Kupfer, 2009, pp. 63-75)
‘Camere di sangue (Nicoletta Vallorani è Angela Carter)’ in Mappe sulla pelle ed. by Tessere Trame [Cultural Association] (Florence: Editpress, 2012, pp. 11-23)
Il catalogo delle vergini (Rome: Future Fiction, 2017)
Jalousie (Milan: Delos Digital, 2019)
‘Polaroid’ (Cahiers d’études romanes, 38, 2019, pp. 299-305): https://journals.openedition.org/etudesromanes/9466
‘Leyla’ (Sdiario, 9 March 2020)
Selected Scholarly Work by Vallorani
‘The Body of the City: Angela Carter’s The Passion of the New Eve’ (Science Fiction Studies, 21.3, 1994, pp. 365-379)
She cultures. Profili femminili nei media (Milan: CUEM, 2002)
[ed.]: Wick(ed) Children. Strane storie per giovani lettori (Milan: Skira, 2010)
‘The Plague Years. Borderland Narratives on AIDS in the ’90s’ in Discourses and Narrations in the Biosciences ed. by Paola Spinozzi and Brian Hurwitz (Göttingen: V & R unipress, 2011, pp. 211-226)
Millennium London: Of Other Spaces and the Metropolis (Milan: Mimesis International, 2012)
‘The Dis/Order of Things: Jarman’s Caravaggio and the Criminal Hero’ in Enforcing and Eluding Censorship: British and Anglo-Italian Perspectives ed. by Giuliana Iannaccaro and Giovanni Iamartino (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014, pp. 73-87)
‘Serializing Evil: David Peace and the Formulae of Crime Fiction’ in Serial Crime Fiction: Dying for More ed. by Jean Anderson, Carolina Miranda, and Barbara Pezzotti (London: Palgrave MacMillan, Crime Files Series, 2015, pp. 133-143)
‘On the Bridge. Of Carnivalesque, Homosexuality, inbetween Spaces and Border Crossing’ (De genere. Rivista di studi letterari, postcoloniali e di genere, 2, 2016, pp. 59-74)
‘Speaking Bodies. The “Black Novel” and Women as Borderland Identities” in Sguardi sull’Asia e altri scritti in onore di Alessandra Cristina Lavagnino ed. by Clara Bulfoni, Emma Lupano, and Bettina Mottura (Milan: LED, 2017, pp. 401-412)
‘Of Women and Children. Bad Mothers as Rough Heroes’ (E/C Serie Speciale, 20, 2017, pp. 39-49)
‘Forms of Loss: Dead Bodies and Other Objects’ in (Post)colonial Passages: Incursions and Excursions Across the Literatures and Cultures in English ed. by Silvia Albertazzi, Francesco Cattani, Rita Monticelli, and Federica Zullo (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, pp. 106-119)
[with Nicoletta Di Ciolla and Anna Pasolini] [eds], Raccontare il viaggio. Crimini di migrazione e narrazioni di resistenza (Milan: Mimesis, 2018)
‘La morte segreta delle cose’ in Rappresentare la violenza di genere: Sguardi femministi tra critica, attivismo e scrittura ed. by Marina Bettaglio, Nicoletta Mandolini, and Silvia Ross (Milan: Mimesis, 2018, pp. 333-343)
‘Crime Fiction and the Future’ in The Routledge Companion to Crime Fiction ed. by Janice Allan, Jesper Gulddal, Stewart King, and Andrew Pepper (London: Routledge, 2020, pp. 406-414)
[with Anna Pasolini] Corpi magici: Scritture incarnate dal fantastico alla fantascienza (Milan: Mimesis, 2020)
[with Simona Bertacco] The Relocation of Culture: Translations, Migrations, Borders (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021)
‘Faithful to the Wor(l)d. Visual Texts, Responsibility and the Issue of Translation’ (Pólemos, 15.2, 2021, pp. 207-220)
Translations into Italian by Vallorani
Naufragio sul pianeta Darkover [Translation of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover Landfall] (Milan: Editrice Nord, 1985)
La spada incantata [Translation of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Spell Sword] (Milan: Editrice Nord, 1987; Milan: Editori Associati, TEADue, 2004)
‘Cristalli sognanti’ [Translation of Theodore Sturgeon’s The Dreaming Jewels] in Theodore Sturgeon: Cristalli sognanti, Nascita del superuomo, I figli di Medusa, Venere più X (Milan: Mondadori, I massimi della fantascienza, 1990, pp. 3-134)
Darkover: Naufragio sulla terra di Darkover; La spada incantata [Translation of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover Landfall and The Spell Sword (Milan: Editrice Nord, 1991)
Microservi [Translation with Ermanno Gomma Guarneri of Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs] (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1996)
Il blues del ragazzo bianco [Translation of Paul Beatty’s The White Boy Shuffle] (Milan: Baldini e Castoldi Dalai, 1997; Rome: Fazi, 2017)
I sotterranei and I vagabondi del Dharma [Translation of Jack Kerouac’s The Subterraneans and The Dharma Bums] in Jack Kerouac: Romanzi (Milan: Mondadori, 2001)
Oltre la muraglia. Un viaggio in Cina [Translation of Colin Thubro’s Behind the Wall] (Milan: Ponte alle Grazie, 2001; Milan: Editori Associati, TEA Avventure, 2004 & 2008; Milan: TEA, 2017)
Naufragio sulla terra di Darkover [Translation of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover Landfall] (Milan: Editori Associati, TEADue, 2003)
I sotterranei [Translation of Jack Kerouac’s The Subterraneans] (Milan: Mondadori, 2018)
I vagabondi del Dharma [Translation of Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums] (Milan: Mondadori, 2021)
English
Excerpts from Cordelia, translated by Ruth M. Malloy and read by Nicoletta Vallorani at ‘Writing Childhood’, launch event of the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women’s Writing, Institute of Modern Languages Research, University of London, 16 October 2009 available online at https://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/Centres/Vallorani%20reads%20from%20Cordelia%20(CCWW%20Launch%202006).pdf
‘Pasolini’s Shadow’ [Translation of unpublished short story by Anne Milano Appel] in Rome Noir ed. by Chiara Stangalino and Maxim Jakubowski (New York: Akashic Books, 2009, pp. 19-35)
Cordelia’s Colours [Translation of Cordelia by Gillian Ania and Sarah Simm] (Leicester: Troubador, 2012)
Camera Obscura [Translation of Le madri cattive by John Gatt] (Leicester: Troubador, 2012)
The Catalog of Virgins [Translation of Il catalogo delle vergini by Rachel S. Cordasco] (Clarkesworld, 134, November 2017) available online at https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/vallorani_11_17/. Audio Version, read by Kate Baker at https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/audio_11_17d/
French
Trois p’tites nuits et puis s’en vont [Translation of Dentro la notte e ciao by Arlette Lauterbach] (Paris: Gallimard, 1998)
‘Choukra’ [Translation of ‘Choukra’ by Jacques Barbéri] in Fragments d’un miroir brisé ed. by Valerio Evangelisti (Paris: Payot & Rivages, 1999, pp. 29-42)
Achab et Azúl [Translation of Achab e Azul by Diane Ménard] (Paris: Gallimard, 1999)
‘Cybo’ [Translation of ‘Cybo’ by Fabiola Mancinelli] in Cosmic erotica ed. by Jean-Marc Ligny (Paris: J’ai Lu, 2000, pp. 269-278)
Réplicante [Translation of Il cuore finto di DR by Jacques Barbéri] (Paris: Payot & Rivages, 2000)
La fiancée de Zorro [Translation of La fidanzata di Zorro by Arlette Lauterbach] (Paris: Gallimard, 2000)
‘Celle qui libère’ [Translation of ‘Floppy libera tutti’ by Éric Vial] in Utopiae ed. by Bruno Della Chiesa and Denis Guiot (Nantes: L’Atalante, 2000, pp. 65-87)
Cœur métisse [Translation of Cuore meticcio by Arlette Lauterbach] (Paris: Gallimard, 2002)
‘L’Ombre de Pasolini’ [Translation of unpublished short story by Sarah Guilmault] in Rome Noir ed. by Chiara Stangalino and Maxim Jakubowski (Paris: Asphalte, 2011; Paris: Gallimard, Folio Policier, 2013)
Baldi, Elio: 'Violence, the Humanness of Things, and the Thingness of Humans in Nicoletta Vallorani's Avrai i miei occhi' (Extrapolation, 64.2, 2023, pp. 229-257)
Cannamela, Danila: ‘A Fairy-Tale Noir: Rewriting Fairy Tales into Feminist Narratives of Exposure’ (Quaderni d’italianistica, 39.2, 2018, pp. 85-110)
Carmina, Claudia: ‘Di nuovo schiave. Donne e distopia (2007-2022)’ (Narrativa – Nuova serie, 44, 2022, pp. 33-47)
Carrara, Giuseppe: ‘Fantascienza femminista’ (Narrativa ‒ Nouvelle série, 43, 2021, pp. 45-58)
Drage, Eleanor: ‘Paths Towards Multispecies Superintelligence and Socio-Economic Justice: Nicoletta Vallorani’s Il Cuore Finto di DR’ (Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 7.2, 2020, pp. 90–107)
—: The Planetary Humanism of European Women’s Science Fiction: An Experience of the Impossible (Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2024) [it focuses on science fiction from the UK, France, Spain, and Italy, and features Nicoletta Vallorani’s Sulla sabbia di Sur and Il cuore finto di DR]
Jansen, Monica: ‘Estrapolare Eva: alla ricerca dell’irriproducibilità tecnica dell’opera d'arte’ (Narrativa, 26, 2004, pp. 69-79)
—: ‘Un polar métaphysique sans aura: Visto dal cielo de Nicoletta Vallorani’ (Cahiers d'études romanes, Nouvelle série, 15.1, 2006, pp. 239-254)
Jansen, Monica and Claudio Milanesi: ‘Eva e Avrai i miei occhi: tracciare e ricomporre le mappe sulla pelle. Conversation pieces’ (Narrativa – Nouvelle série, 43, 2021, pp. 239-261)
Milanesi, Claudio: ‘Les femmes et le polar italien. Les trois romans policiers de Nicoletta Vallorani (Italies: Femmes italiennes, 3, 1999, pp. 96-115)
Pieri, Giuliana and Lucia Rinaldi: ‘Italian Women Crime Writers’ in Italian Crime Fiction ed. and intr. by Giuliana Pieri (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011, pp. 115-131)
Rorato, Laura: ‘Writing For or Writing About Children? The Representation of Childhood in Contemporary Italian Fiction’ (Forum for Modern Language Studies, 49.2, 2013, pp. 145-153)
Ross, Charlotte: ‘Locked in or Locked out, or ‘la vita delle cose’: Gender, Agency and (Dis)embodiment in Primo Levi and Nicoletta Vallorani’s Speculative Fiction’ (Enthymema, 33, 2023, pp. 91-104)
Salibra, Luciana: ‘Ali di Nicoletta Vallorani, tra i racconti polizieschi dell’autrice’ in Cinquant’anni di «“neri” italiani». Diacronie linguistiche da Scerbanenco alla Vallorani (Acireale‒Rome: Bonanno, 2014, pp. 125-144)
Spinelli, Manuela: ‘Tecnologia e violenza di genere. Il catalogo delle vergini di Nicoletta Vallorani’ in Fantascienza femminista. Immaginare il genere nella letteratura contemporanea ed. by Ramona Onnis, Anna Chiara Palladino, and Manuela Spinelli (Firenze: Franco Cesati Editore, 2022, pp. 41-48)
armandoadolgiso.it: Interview (2004) available online at https://www.adolgiso.it/enterprise/nicoletta_vallorani.asp
Contarini, Silvia: ‘“Avrai i miei occhi”, di Nicoletta Vallorani’ (Nazione Indiana, 22 March 2020) available online at https://www.nazioneindiana.com/2020/03/22/avrai-i-miei-occhi-di-nicoletta-vallorani/
Dargent, Denis: ‘Nicoletta Vallorani: Interview Express’ (Science-Fiction Magazine, 10, 2000, p. 33)
Mochi, Roberta: ‘Tredici domande a Nicoletta Vallorani’ (Progetto di Babele, 8, 2003) available online at http://www.progettobabele.it/autori/aut_num8c.php
‘Nicoletta Vallorani presenta Avrai i miei occhi’ (Colibrì, 6 May 2020) available online at https://www.facebook.com/Colibrimilano/videos/647374699326738
Onnis, Ramona, Anna Chiara Palladino, and Manuela Spinelli: ‘Raccontare il futuro. Intervista a Laura Pugno, Veronica Raimo e Nicoletta Vallorani’ in Fantascienza femminista. Immaginare il genere nella letteratura contemporanea ed. by Ramona Onnis, Anna Chiara Palladino, and Manuela Spinelli (Firenze: Franco Cesati Editore, 2022, pp.171-178)
Strum, Robert: Interview for Intercom (Intercom, 13, 2003)
Tosoni, Simone: ‘Sogni sintetici’ (Trax, n.d.) available online at www.trax.it/nicoletta_vallorani.htm