About Me

Alex Valente

(he/him)

Half Tuscan, half Yorkshire, I was born in Prato and moved to Leeds for a BA in English Language & Literature, then to Norwich for Literary Translation and Comics Studies (MA; PhD). Currently working as a freelance translator from Prato, Italy – though based in the traditional, ancestral, unceded, and occupied territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, for a couple years at least.

I translate both poetry and prose, from Italian and French into English, and English and French into Italian. I will honestly try out any language you throw at me, and I’m currently app-learning Mandarin after a jaunt into Japanese. I write and translate poetry and short prose, including flash and microfiction. I have performed live literature in Leeds and Norwich, compèred at events (including Barefoot in the Park and Freewheelin’). In Italy, I have performed a solo show at Caffellatte in Florence, and hosted couple of events in Prato.

During and after my studies, I have been an intern for Arc Publications, BCLA, BCLT, and made up true facts about the latter. I have been an Associate Tutor for the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing (LDC) at UEA, a scare actor at PrimEVIL, a social media assistant for both. I have been a volunteer with Oxfam in Norwich and in Prato/Florence, and worked for and with Booksinitaly.it. While teaching in Prato, I also ran the social media side for La Bottega delle Lingue, a language school and cooperative, and have been active with Collettivo Queer Riot, on social media and ‘in the streets’.

To keep in touch with my nerdy interests, I get involved in the behind the scenes work at  events such as TFNation (since 2016), Thought Bubble Festival (since 2009), and was the News Administrator for Seibertron.com (2013-2018).

In English, I have been published in Poetry&Audience, The Literateur, The Scribe, the NewWriting website, as part of the creative writing/translation Threads project, 140Story, 101Fiction, and Eye to the Telescope, and am a regular contributor and the co-editor for The Norwich Radical (previously Arts section editor). In Italian, I have a short story published in the Rac-Corti 2011 anthology, and have won the Poesia nel Cassetto 2011 poetry competition, both run by Associazione Culturale Flanerì; in 2012, Edizioni Memori published another short story of mine, in the anthology Memoracconti.

A full and updated list of my publications can be found here.