Joseph Luzzi
Biography
Joseph Luzzi is a scholar of Italian literature and culture who received his PhD from Yale University. He is the author of eight books, including 'Dante's Divine Comedy: A Biography' and the memoir 'In a Dark Wood: What Dante Taught Me About Grief, Healing, and the Mysteries of Love.' His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the American Scholar, among other publications.
Sample Works
- Botticelli's Secret: The Lost Drawings and the Rediscovery of the Renaissance (2022) Book
- In a Dark Wood: What Dante Taught Me About Grief, Healing, and the Mysteries of Love (2015) Book
- My Two Italies: A Personal and Cultural History (2014) Book
- A Cinema of Poetry: Aesthetics of the Italian Art Film (2014) Book
- Romantic Europe and the Ghost of Italy (2008) Book
Roundtable Appearances
February 21, 2026 · ▶ Video
Why We Write
The roundtable explores motivations behind writing through philosophical and literary lenses. The discussion examines how written words convey meaning, ranging from literal...
Elizabeth Birkelund, Michael Frank, Paul Fry, Eric Lindstrom, Joseph Luzzi, Honor Moore
November 16, 2019 · ▶ Video
Emergence of Empathy: Encountering The Other Through Fiction
The event explores how empathy -- derived from Greek "pathos" meaning "to endure" -- functions through fiction. Coined in 1909 by psychologist Edward Bradford Titchner as a...
Percival Everett, Siri Hustvedt, Yiyun Li, Joseph Luzzi, Alberto Manguel