Daniele Pantano

Daniele Pantano

Daniele Pantano

Daniele Pantano is a Swiss poet, artist, literary translator, critic, and editor. His poems, essays, translations, and criticism have appeared widely, and his poems have been translated into several languages, including Albanian, Bulgarian, German, Farsi, French, Kurdish, Russian, and Slovenian. His most recent works include Robert Walser: Comedies (Seagull Books, 2018), ORAKL (Black Lawrence Press, 2017), Robert Walser’s Fairy Tales: Dramolettes (New Directions, 2015), and Dogs in Untended Fields: Selected Poems by Daniele Pantano (Wolfbach Verlag, 2015). Pantano taught at the University of South Florida, served as the Visiting Poet-in-Residence at Florida Southern College, and directed the creative writing program at Edge Hill University, where he was Reader in Poetry and Literary Translation. He currently teaches at the University of Lincoln. For more information, please visit www.pantano.ch.

cover image of the book Fairy Tales

Fairy Tales

by Robert Walser

Translated by James Reidel and Daniele Pantano

With a contribution by Reto Sorg

Fairy Tales gathers the unconventional verse dramolettes by the Swiss writer Robert Walser. Narrated in Walser’s inimitable, playful language, these theatrical pieces overturn traditional notions of the fairy tale, transforming the Brothers Grimm into metatheater, even metareflections.

Snow White forgives the evil queen for trying to kill her. Cinderella doubts her prince and enjoys being hated by her stepsisters; The Fairy Tale itself is a character who encourages her to stay within the confines of the story. Sleeping Beauty, the royal family, and its retainers are not happy about being woken up their sleep by an absurd, unpretentious Walser-like hero. Mary and Joseph are taken aback by what lies in store for their baby Jesus.

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