Joseph Luzzi

Joseph Luzzi (PhD, Yale) teaches Comparative Literature and Italian Studies at Bard College. His most recent book is Botticelli’s Secret: The Lost Drawings and the Rediscovery of the Renaissance (Norton, 2022), a New Yorker Best Book of 2022 So Far. He is also the author of My Two Italies (FSG, 2014), a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection, and In a Dark Wood: What Dante Taught Me About Grief, Healing, and the Mysteries of Love (HarperCollins, 2015), a Vanity Fair Must-Read that has been translated into multiple languages. His first book, Romantic Europe and the Ghost of Italy (Yale, 2008), won the MLA’s Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies. He has received an NEH Public Scholars Award, Wallace Fellowship at Harvard's Villa I Tatti, Dante Society of America Essay Prize, and National Humanities Center Fellowship. In 2019, Joseph created the Virtual Book Club, an international online community of readers dedicating to exploring outstanding contemporary writing and cherished literary classics. Learn more at JosephLuzzi.com.