We need to talk about Italian speculative fiction

A look at Italian speculative fiction, with some example and a great fair in Milan, to which you are all invited.

“Speculative Fiction. Made in Italy. Shared Worldwide.”

Acheron Books tagline definitely fits with this post.

So, the topic is: What those guys in Italy are doing about weird, pulp, speculative fiction, fantasy, sci-fi and horror?

In Italy, we read a lot of speculative fiction in translation, and more and more people are getting used to reading also in English, when needed. At the same time, we write a lot and there are several publishers, of great, medium or little size, who produce and release Italian short and long stories for our internal market.

We also have several fairs expressly dedicated to weird and speculative literature, like this one in Milan: Stranimondi, where great foreigner writers are also expected.

Then, what about Italian speculative fiction in translation? The matter is controversial, because I think Italian authors often create great stories, but almost none of us can write them directly in English. I can’t, for example, and I’m very bothered about that, because I have no time to spend improving my language skills, as I should need.

Of course, there are a few of us, like my friend Davide Mana, that can do (and are used to do) great stuff writing directly in English. See for example his last production, Hope and Glory: Part of the Machine, a short fiction of a series connected to his last Savage Setting.

But they are very rare, so we need a good translator. Unfortunately, a good professional translator from Italian to English is usually too much expensive for common speculative fiction market.

There are also – what a bless! – English specialists, lecturers, columnists and reviewers who help our best stories and writers to be known also outside our frontiers.

So, the best thing you can do right now to have a look on our best production in translation is to read this article from Bookriot. If you think you can like something, give a chance to those books. You can find some hidden treasure, here.

And finally, if you are interested in meeting our writers, publishers and books, please join us in Milan next fall for Stranimondi: you will find us all there.