Irene Marchegiani, is currently Coordinator of Student Teaching for European Languages at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. She has written several essays on Giacomo Leopardi, and contemporary Italian literature, with a particular emphasis on women writers. Recently, she co-edited the volume The Poetics of Place. Florence Imagined and she is currently working on a volume on Giacomo Leopardi's Canti titled L'altro Leopardi. In collaboration with Professor Charles Jernigan she has translated Torquato Tasso's Aminta, published by Italica Press, in 2000. The book was awarded the prestigious Italian "Diego Valeri" Monselice Prize for translation in 2002, and it has received numerous significant reviews. Some of Professor Marchegiani's poems appeared in several Italian journals and recently she has published her first collection of poetry, La vita in cerchio.