(30 May 017) The American architect and winner of the MacArthur Fellow Award, Jeanne Gang, will talk with writer and translator Daniel Levin Becker, a member of OuLiPo, on the new masterly translation, curated by Geoffrey Brock, of Italo Calvino's collected lectures and notes titled "American Lessons: Six Proposals for the New Millennium". The event will take place in New York on June 14th (19:00-20.30) at Albertine (972 Fifth Avenue NYC), in collaboration with the Great Apple's Italian Institute of Culture. "Perhaps it is a sign of our millennium that we often wonder what will become of literature and books in the so-called post-industrial technological era" Calvino reflected. I do not feel like lingering on this kind of speculation. My confidence in the future of literature is to know that there are things that only literature - through its intrinsic features - can give us". Italo Calvino (1923-1985) is recognised as one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century. Born in Cuba and growing up in Sanremo; he lived in Turin, Paris, Rome and many other cities. Among his many works are "Invisible Cities", "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler," "The Baron in the Trees", as well as numerous collections of fiction, fairy tales, and essays. His works have been translated into many different languages. In 1984, Calvino was invited to Harvard University to hold a series of lectures - known as the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures. Prior to his death, he completed five of the six lectures on the imaginative possibilities of language and literature.

OULIPO

OuLiPo (an acronym for the French "Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle"), a group (not limited to) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who aim to create works using constrained or 'restricted' writing. The group was founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais. Other prominent members include the novelists Georges Perec, Italo Calvino, and the poet and mathematician, Jacques Roubaud.