Joseph Luzzi is a writer and Professor of Comparative Literature at Bard College, where he also teaches in the Italian Studies and Film programs. The first child in his Calabrian family born in the U.S., he is the author of the memoir, In a Dark Wood: What Dante Taught Me About Grief, Healing, and the Mysteries of Love(HarperCollins, 2015). His other books include My Two Italies (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014).

He is a frequent contributor of essays and reviews to publications including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Bookforum, the London Times Literary Supplement, and many others. His first book, Romantic Europe and the Ghost of Italy (Yale Univ. Press, 2008), received the Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies from the Modern Language Association, and his book A Cinema of Poetry: Aesthetics of the Italian Art Film (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2014) was a Finalist for the “The Bridge” Book Award from the American Initiative For Italian Culture Foundation, International Competition in Italy and U.S., 2015. His work has been translated into or is forthcoming in Italian, German, Korean, and Portuguese, and he lecture throughout the world on art, film, and literature.