Jolanda Insana (18 May 1937 – 27 October 2016) was an Italian poet and translator.
Born in Messina, in 1968 Insana moved to Rome where she graduated in Ancient Literature with a thesis on Erinna's The Distaff. Active as a translator of classical and contemporary authors, she debuted as a poet in 1977, with the collection Sciarra amara ("Bitter Harvest"). In 2002 she won the Viareggio Prize for poetry for La stortura.[1] [2]
Giovanni Raboni described Insana's poetic style as "visionary concreteness".[1]
The first full-length collection of Insana’s poetry in English was translated by Catherine Theis and published by the University of Chicago Press in October 2024 as Slashing Sounds (Fendenti fonici; Società di poesia, Milan, 1982).[3]