My journey with Italian began in the winter of 1986 when I visited Florence for the first time. Later that year, eager to learn the language, I attended the Middlebury College Language Schools, where I built a strong foundation in Italian and was fortunate to study with Mario Moffa. Back at Mills College, where I was majoring in Comparative Literature, I cross-registered at UC Berkeley and took as many classes as I could. 

I spent my junior year at the University of Florence, studying medieval manuscripts, Renaissance history, and contemporary Italian culture. After receiving my B.A. in 1989, I returned to Florence, where I taught English and eventually made my home in the nearby Casentino Valley for four years.

In 1994, I moved back to the United States and settled in New York City. I worked at the Italian Academy at Columbia University and later at the Consulate General of Italy. In 1999, I attempted my first literary translations and realized that translation was the path I wanted to pursue. I returned to Columbia to earn an M.A. in Italian, which I received in 2002, studying with several inspiring professors, including Luciano Rebay.

To support a career in literary translation, I went on to earn a second master’s degree in Adolescent Education, and I taught English in New York City public schools. In 2009, I returned to Italy, where I have combined literary translation with teaching English, a job in the wine industry, freelance writing, and commercial translation.

Over the years, I have been fortunate to receive support from several institutions and associations. In 2001, I received a travel fellowship from the American Literary Translators Association. In 2003, I was a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome while translating a novel set in the Eternal City. 

Everything came full circle in 2018, when I taught a graduate-level translation course at the Middlebury College Italian Language Summer School at Mills College.

2019 was a year of workshops: I attended the Middlebury Bread Loaf Translation Workshop in Vermont, and a course in Florence taught by Tim Parks. In 2021, I completed an online course in teaching literary translation organized by the British Centre for Literary Translation, the European School of Literary Translation, and the Fondazione San Pellegrino. 

My translations have been nominated for several major awards, including the International Booker Prize, the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, the ALTA Italian Prose in Translation Award, the Dublin IMPAC Literary Award, and the CWA Silver Dagger.

Recently, I have started writing essays under my own name that explore the layers of my connection to the Italian language through the phenomenology of translation. Workshops with Q.M. Zhang and through Granta have helped me dig deeper into this topic by sharing work in a supportive community.   

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Open Access: Il Veltro: "This Quiet Work: Translating Giuseppe Pontiggia," winter 2025

Electric Lit Recommended Reading: "I am an Eight-year-old Orpheus" October 14, 2024

Europa website: Reading guide to Starnone's The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan, October 8, 2024

Global Libraries and Literature Initiative, Italian Literature in Translation Blog Post: Sneak peek of reading guide to The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan October 4, 2024

Asymptote blog: "In my dreams I reply like this" August 15, 2024

Article in Asymptote: Interview with Oonagh Stransky and Marla Moffa, translators of Eugenio Montale's Butterfly of Dinard" June 20, 2024

Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Day, Talk: "Creative Solutions to Complex Situations in The House on Via Gemito." St. Anne's College, Oxford University, June 15, 2024

International Booker Prize Longlist 2024: Interview with Domenico Starnone and Oonagh Stransky April 3, 2024

Harshaneeyam Podcast: International Booker Prize Longlisted Book: The House on Via Gemito March 22, 2024

Tupelo Quarterly: "A Full-Stop on Her Period: Translating Lucarelli's Almost Blue" December 14, 2023

Hopscotch: "Thoughts on the Translation of Via Gemito" May 30, 2023

Contact me with any questions you may have.