Antonio Della Rocca

Antonio Della Rocca likes to define himself as an exemplar of the endangered human species “Homo mitteleuropaeus”.

He was born in Trieste in 1943. On Trieste’s City Hall seven different flags fluttered in the 20th century, six of them during his life (Italian Kingdom, Germany, Yugoslavia, British/USA, Italian Republic).

Italian is his mother tongue. He learned German as a sort of family language, Spanish living in Latin America, French for the sake of it and working in a joint venture with Renault, English as the indispensable lingua franca of business. His survival Russian was acquired in Moscow.

He got classical studies, but – karma – he graduated in Political Sciences and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Karma again, his whole professional life (1963-1998) has been under the sign of international management and has involved extended travelling.

In 1963 he started what he likes to call his first career in the management of many Italian companies (RAS, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Olivetti) in Italy and abroad (Colombia, the former USSR, Germany).

Nevertheless, he has been a strong reader for the whole of his life - in 5 languages.

In 1999 Della Rocca did come back to Trieste and decided to make of writing his main interest.

Till now he has published the following books:

- "Il Professore" (The Professor) – a novel about a personality story about an old university professor - in 2002.

- “Carboncini e sanguigne” (Charcoals and sanguines) - a sylloge of poems - in 2006.

- "La spilla di Janesich" (Janesich’s brooch) – a novel about a brooch of a well-known jeweller – in 2008.

- “Per una stella da Maresciallo” (For a Marshal’s star) – a spy story based in Moscow – in 2008.

- “Ho sognato una vita come Franz Kafka” (I dreamed of a life like that of Franz Kafka) – a collection of short stories – in 2014.

- “La bambina in rosso - Egon Schiele visto dalle sue donne e dai contemporanei” (The girl in red - Egon Schiele seen by his women and by his contemporaries) – a biographic novel - in 2015.

- “Meduse e Manager – Meduze şi manageri” (Jellyfishes and managers) – a sylloge of poems bilingual in Italian/Romanian – in 2016 – translation of Simona-Grazia Dima.

He has received some awards, the last of which the Tudor Arghezi 2015 National Prize in Romania. Many of his poems have been translated in other languages and have been published in anthologies and magazines.

In September 2003 he was among the founders of the Trieste PEN Centre, of which he is currently President.

From 2012 to 2018 he has been a Member-at-Large of the International Board of PEN International. He still serves as an Advisor in the Board Sub-Committees Finance. Since 2018 he is a member of the Search Committee of PI.

In September 2010 he started a page on Facebook “PEN international on Facebook” with the aim of furthering communication among PEN Centres and Members. This page counts now more than 1100 members.