Grazia Valente was born in Turin, where she lives.
She is the author of prose and poems, some of which have been awarded and published in magazines and anthologies. In 1999 she won the national Haiku Contest prize promoted by the Japanese Cultural Institute (Rome). One of her stories, winner of a R.A.I. competition, was broadcast on the radio and included in an anthology (Edizioni ERI). Some of her poems have been set to music by the Duo Pizzulli. (voice, piano and violin). The contemporary artist Chen Li has graphically interpreted some poems taken from various published and unpublished collections. She currently collaborates with Letizia Gariglio’s online periodical Parole in rete. Works: with the publishing house Portaparole the following have been published: “Il poeta” (The poet), 2012 and “Fillide amorosa”, 2013. With the publisher Achille e La Tartaruga: “Ambaradonna”, 2015; “La fatal quiete” (The fatal quiet), 2017; “Se un filo d’erba basta a farti ombra” (If a blade of grass is enough to cast a shadow on you), 2018; “Galleria delle bellezze – Ritratti femminili in forma di collage” (Gallery of beauties – Female portraits in the form of collages), 2018; “All’ombra dello zen – 99 microracconti” (In the shadow of zen – 99 micro-stories), 2019; “Haiku dei timidi passi” (Haiku of timid steps), 2021; “A proposito di Thomas B. – viaggio nel labirinto della scrittura di Thomas Bernhard” (About Thomas B. – a journey into the labyrinth of Thomas Bernhard’s writing), 2022. With Prinp Editore: “Il sogno – poesie di Grazia Valente – opere di Chen Li” (The dream – poems by Grazia Valente – works by Chen Li), 2022; “Il tempo che rimane” (The time that remains), 2024.

Grazia Valente was born in Turin, where she lives.
She is the author of prose and poems, some of which have been awarded and published in magazines and anthologies.
In 1999 she won the national Haiku Contest prize promoted by the Japanese Cultural Institute (Rome). One of her stories, winner of a R.A.I. competition, was broadcast on the radio and included in an anthology (Edizioni ERI).
Some of her poems have been set to music by the Duo Pizzulli. (voice, piano and violin).
The contemporary artist Chen Li has graphically interpreted some poems taken from various published and unpublished collections.
She currently collaborates with Letizia Gariglio’s online periodical Parole in rete.
Works:
with the publishing house Portaparole the following have been published:
“Il poeta” (The poet), 2012 and “Fillide amorosa”, 2013.
With the publisher Achille e La Tartaruga:
“Ambaradonna”, 2015; “La fatal quiete” (The fatal quiet), 2017; “Se un filo d’erba basta a farti ombra” (If a blade of grass is enough to cast a shadow on you), 2018; “Galleria delle bellezze – Ritratti femminili in forma di collage” (Gallery of beauties – Female portraits in the form of collages), 2018; “All’ombra dello zen – 99 microracconti” (In the shadow of zen – 99 micro-stories), 2019; “Haiku dei timidi passi” (Haiku of timid steps), 2021; “A proposito di Thomas B. – viaggio nel labirinto della scrittura di Thomas Bernhard” (About Thomas B. – a journey into the labyrinth of Thomas Bernhard’s writing), 2022.
With Prinp Editore: “Il sogno – poesie di Grazia Valente – opere di Chen Li” (The dream – poems by Grazia Valente – works by Chen Li), 2022; “Il tempo che rimane” (The time that remains), 2024.

Inspired by Hans Holbein the Younger’s Alphabet of Death (1524) – 24 initial letters that narrate the dance of death in hierarchical order, from the pope to the child – this volume reinterprets each letter in a visual and poetic composition.
Fannidada and Luca Ragagnin create an epistolary dialogue made of surreal verses and satirical images, playing with full and empty spaces in a fusion of art history and contemporary memento mori.

“Leafing through a copy of the Rizzoli Larousse Great Universal Encyclopedia, we discovered the existence of the Alphabet of Death, a series of 24 initial letters created in 1524 by the German artist Hans Holbein the Younger and engraved on wood by Hans Lutzelburger.
Hans Holbein was a very productive artist: during his residence in Basel, a well-known center for studies and dissemination of the ideas of the Protestant Reformation, he created cycles of images dedicated to the Dance of Death.
The subtly satirical images of dancing skeletons with women and men took up the late medieval allegory of the dance of death, a memento mori addressed to all members of society starting with the pope and then following the emperor, the king, the queen, common people such as the drunkard and the usurer, up to the last element of the social ladder, the child.
Unlike previous representations, where the dance took place in a single place and in a single scene, Holbein divided the danse macabre into individual images that he subsequently arranged as initials, according to the social hierarchy of the time, in the Alphabet of Death.
We too, influenced by the history of these images, decided to create our own reinterpretation using the identical volumes of the encyclopedia that we had kept for many years.
Just as Luca Ragagnin, in an invented modernity, followed Holbein’s scheme by matching each letter of the alphabet with the corresponding social figure. A sort of exchange of letters was born, which saw Luca regularly sending his surreal compositions inspired by our initials, while we responded to his submissions by constantly adjusting the full and empty spaces with great mutual amusement”. (fannidada)

Grazia Valente was born in Turin, where she lives.
She is the author of prose and poems, some of which have been awarded and published in magazines and anthologies.
In 1999 she won the national Haiku Contest prize promoted by the Institute of Japanese Culture (Rome). One of his stories, winner of a RAI competition, was broadcast on radio and included in an anthology (ERI Editions).
Some poems were set to music by the Pizzulli Duo (voice, piano and violin).
Contemporary artist Chen Li graphically interpreted some poems taken from various published and unpublished collections.
He currently collaborates with Letizia Gariglio’s online periodical “Parole in rete”.
The following have been published with the Portaparole Publishing House:
“Il poeta” (The poet) 2012 and “Fillide amorosa” 2013.
With the publisher Achille e La Tartaruga:
“Ambaradonna” 2015; “La fatal quiete” (The fatal quiet) 2017; “Se un filo d’erba basta a farti ombra” (If a blade of grass is enough to shade you) 2018; “Galleria delle bellezze (ritratti femminili in forma di collage)” (Gallery of Beauties – Female portraits in collage form) 2018; “All’ombra dello zen – 99 microracconti” (In the shadow of Zen – 99 micro-stories) 2019; “Haiku dei timidi passi” (Haiku of the timid steps) 2021; “A proposito di Thomas B. – viaggio nel labirinto della scrittura di Thomas Bernhard” (About Thomas B. – journey into the labyrinth of Thomas Bernhard’s writing) 2022.
With Prinp Editore she published “Il sogno. Poesie di Grazia Valente e opere di Chen Li” (The Dream. Poems by Grazia Valente and works by Chen Li) 2022.