I am an Honorary Lecturer in literature at the ANU, looking primarily at Italy, ancient and modern, as well as topics in English and Australian literature. My past projects have included a translation of a landmark scientific proposal by the 18th Century mineralogist Giovanni Arduino, and the anti-fascist writings of Piero Bigongiari in the 1940s. I am also a contributor to the Australian Book Review magazine, with reviews of new writing. But CEMS is the home of my main research work.

I am very fortunate to say this is quite the month for milestones!

At the beginning of July, I presented the first piece of my research on the Italian origins and evolution of the sonnet. The project’s aim is to create an historical anthology of original Italian texts and parallel English translations, to chart the sonnet’s first 400 years or so, up to about the time it entered the English language. At the Australasian Centre for Italian Studies (ACIS) Biennial Conference here at the ANU, I gave a paper on the sonnets exchanged by Michelangelo Buonarroti (at that time in the midst of painting The Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel) and Vittoria Colonna (in the midst of debates on the reform of the church). This paper was partly an exposé of how these two supremely gifted figures used the sonnet as a form of correspondence. Was it primarily a personal exchange or a spiritual-philosophical one? What could it tell us about the sonnet as a form? What might a sonnet capture that a letter might not? And partly, also, this paper was an opportunity to test the aims and concept of my sonnet project on a case study, and to discuss the results with Early Modern Studies researchers from around our Australian and world community (and with researchers from many other disciplines – ACIS is very inclusive!).

Now, with these tests done, it’s time to go back to the beginning and compile the first part of the historical anthology, beginning in the 1200s at the court of Frederick II in Sicily, where Giacomo da Lentini more or less invented the sonnet, and working up to the first decades of the 1300s with the work of Dante Alighieri (via the two Guidos – Guinizelli and Cavalcanti – and, I hope, lesser-known figures). So, the ‘sonnet hunt’ is on. I’m not seeking only the most prominent or famous examples, but sonnets that display changes or unusual uses of the form, or that shed light on lives, careers, events and ideas that lie in the shadows of familiar history. Selections, translations, commentary – they all lie ahead.

The other milestone this month comes from the other part of my work, as a writer. I am glad to say my book Lebanon Days, a memoir of living in Lebanon from 2018 to early 2021, will be published on 30 July. I was in Lebanon accompanying my wife on a diplomatic posting and the book is partly a memoir, partly a travelogue and partly a piece of political journalism, bearing witness to a tragic but historic period in a troubled but beautiful country. I saw the Lebanese revolution unfold in 2019, a gigantic movement of hope that sadly came to hard end as Lebanon suffered an economic crash and came to the edge of war twice. And then in August 2020, the Beirut port explosion struck our home, destroying it around us and nearly killing us in the process. This book is an attempt to place these huge events in historical and social context. It contains stories told to me by Lebanese people from all walks of life. They shared startling ideas of what their country could be and showed many forms of courage. I wrote the book mainly to try and amplify these stories and to contribute to wider understanding of Lebanon, a country on which the world has turned its back.