Lecturer’s exile from Switzerland revealed in new poetry book

A self-exile from Switzerland tells readers of his escape to a new life through a series of poems that have just been published.

The Oldest Hands in the World by Daniele Pantano, Programme Leader for Creative Writing at Edge Hill University, is based on his experiences as he leaves behind his native country to begin a new life in America and the UK.

Through his written work, Swiss-born Pantano reveals the challenges he faced when deciding to completely change languages and ultimately turning his back on his old way of life, cultures and traditions.

While some of his work describes his mother's suicide, his father's denial when Daniele first revealed he wanted to be a writer and how moving to a new country and writing in a new language changes you as a person, the poems should not be read as pure confessions. 

"The overall theme is based on my experiences as an exile and how the act of switching languages is almost like linguistic and cultural suicide in that you are leaving behind your old self in order to survive in a new and alien environment, an experience so many people go through on a daily basis all over the world," explained Daniele.

"In Switzerland I wasn't allowed to go to college because my father is Sicilian, and there were generally no opportunities for someone who wanted to become a poet rather than a banker or confectioner. When I told my father, my friends, my teachers, anyone really, that I wanted to be a poet, they laughed at me and thought I was crazy. That's when I knew I had to leave Switzerland to start a new life.

"I hope that people will find much more than mere ‘confessions' in my work. The poems themselves should be seen as acts of translingualism. In other words, they are poems ‘thought' in many languages and ‘filtered' by a variety of cultural lenses well before they are written in English. Ultimately, the poems are about the perpetual construction--and eventual deconstruction of language, cultural identity, meaning and, of course, new and old selves."

Senior Lecturer Daniele, who is also a translator and critic, began writing some of the poems in this collection 13 years ago and the end result is both dramatic and sensitive as he mixes the familiar with the unfamiliar.

While Daniele has been serving the literary community for many years as a respected and accomplished translator, this debut collection of poems about exile, translingualism, and writing one's way home has been applauded in the literary world.

Billy Collins, Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003, is one of Daniele's fans. He describes his poetry saying, "I make a dish out of nothing could be a poetic creed as well as a line from a Daniele Pantano poem, for he is an expert in moulding the shapelessness of experience into a variety of crafted forms. A romantic with a sharp intelligence, Pantano gives us poems where heart and mind move together as on a verbal bicycle built for two."

Billy will be joining UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy for the first time ever for a reading of their work at Edge Hill University on 28^th October. The Written Word is part of the University's 125thanniversary celebrations and bookings are now being taken for the free event, starting at 6pm. Email corporateevents@edgehill.ac.uk.

The Oldest Hands in the World, by Daniele Pantano, Programme Leader for Creative Writing at Edge Hill University, is out now.

Publisher: Black Lawrence Press/Dzanc Books, $14.00

ISBN: 978-0-9826364-8-0

For more information visit www.danielepantano.ch or http://www.blacklawrence.com/pantano.html.