Notes Scattered and Lost

Author: Amelia Rosselli

Translator: Roberta Antognini and Deborah Woodward

Publisher: Entre Ríos (2024)

Primarily consisting of "discards" from her third major collection Document (I976), the fragments of Notes Scattered and Lost provide insight into Amelia Rosselli's creative process and her remarkable linguistic originality as a self-described "refugee." While Rosselli's published poems and collections are known for their structure— what she called "almost architectural work"— these bursts of inspiration that she enjoyed writing out by hand on tracing paper, along with passages cut from longer work she found unsatisfactory, reveal her humor and wit combined with a sharp sense of injustice and deep political engagement. Notes is also among her most accessible work. "...since the author runs after the impossible and the public doesn't always keep up, I thought that being a little obvious or accessible wouldn't hurt..."