About

Elena Varvello was born in Turin, Italy, in 1971, and grew up in a small village in the woods not far from her birthplace.

As a child, she was always reading and writing, and dreaming of becoming a writer. There was a time when she also dreamed of becoming a singer and a musician. She was a solitary child, books and music her greatest friends.

In 1996 Elena completed a Master Degree in Creative Writing at the Scuola Holden in Turin. Back then she was writing poems and her first short stories.

Since 1999 she has been teaching Creative Writing at the same school, feeling grateful of the opportunity to work with dozens of students on their own short stories and novels.

She has published two collections of poetry, Perseveranza è salutare and Atlanti, a collection of short stories, L’economia delle cose (nominated for the Premio Strega, the Italian equivalent of the Man Booker Prize, winner of the Settembrini Award and the Bagutta Opera Prima Award), and two novels, La luce perfetta del giorno and La vita felice, now translated into English as Can you hear me? (English PEN Award 2017).

So far, La vita felice has been published in the UK, USA, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Poland.

Her 2020 successful novel “Solo un ragazzo” will be published in France and UK in 2022.

She still lives in that small village in the woods with her husband, their two sons and a dog.