Stiliana Milkova

Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Stiliana Milkova presented her new book Natalia Ginzburg's Global Legacies (Palgrave, 2024) at the 2024 American Association of Italian Studies Conference in Sorrento, Italy. In addition to presenting the book, she also gave a paper on posing and passing in translation, focusing on migrant and exophonic writing.

Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Stiliana Milkova coedited a special issue of the journal Romance Studies (41.4, 2023) where her article “The Trauma of Language Learning and Self-Translation in Elena Ferrante and Jhumpa Lahiri” was published. Milkova also published a peer-reviewed personal essay in Zeal: A Journal for the Liberal Arts reflecting on student and faculty vulnerability post-Covid.

Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Italian Stiliana Milkova coedited the volume Natalia Ginzburg’s Global Legacies, which will be published this spring by Palgrave. Milkova coauthored the volume’s introduction, authored a book chapter, and translated from Italian another chapter. This is the first major scholarly book in English on Ginzburg in more than 20 years.

Stiliana Milkova was an invited participant in the first Festival of Italian and Irish Literature in Ireland, held in Dublin on September 29-30, 2023. As a writer in Italian, Professor Milkova presented her book of short fiction Storia delle prime volte and discussed language, identity, and place with two Irish authors, Barry McCrea and William Wall.

Professor Stiliana Milkova's book of short fiction written in Italian Storia delle prime volte (Voland 2022) was reviewed in the major Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera. The reviewer compared Professor Milkova's literary style to that of Italo Calvino.

Professor Milkova's book Storia delle prime volte is published this week in Italy by the Italian publisher Voland. Written in Italian, it is a book of ten short stories about characters who live between languages, continents, and cultures, negotiating their transnational and nomadic identities.

Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Stiliana Milkova was interviewed by Oberlin alumna Bri di Monda for The Smart Set magazine. In the interview, Milkova discusses her recent book Elena Ferrante as World Literature, images of disgust in Maggie Gyllenhaal's film adaptation of Ferrante's novel The Lost Daughter, and the "Carmen Mola" vs. "Elena Ferrante" debate.

Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Stiliana Milkova coedited a special issue of the online journal Reading in Translation on Italian writer Domenico Starnone. The issue contains 13 essays, translations, reviews, and an exclusive interview with Starnone. 

On September 3, Stiliana Milkova, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, co-organized and participated in "Elena Ferrante's Lost Daughters," a round table discussion at the 2021 Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on the occasion of the premier of the 2021 film "The Lost Daughter" starring Maggie Gyllenhaal. The event was part of the cultural association Isola Edipo.

Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Stiliana Milkova interviewed the Bulgarian-born writer Nataliya Deleva and her English translator, the Bulgarian-born Izidora Angel, about Deleva's novel Four Minutes (2021), and her forthcoming novel, written in English, Arrival (2022). In the interview, Milkova, Deleva, and Angel reflect on exophonic writing, literary translation, and the power of collaboration between women.

Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Stiliana Milkova coedited a special issue of the scholarly journal Modern Language Notes (MLN, 136:1, 2021) and published an article in the special issue.

Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Stiliana Milkova published two essays, one in the Bulgarian literary journal Literaturen Vestnik (in Bulgarian), and the other in the online journal Reading in Translation. Her Bulgarian essay discusses her recently published book Elena Ferrante as World Literature (Bloomsbury Academic) while her online publication reflects on reading Elena Ferrante's new novel in Bulgarian translation.

Stiliana Milkova, associate professor of comparative literature, published an article in the scholarly journal "Gender / Sexuality / Italy." Titled "Side By Side: Female Collaboration in Ferrante Fiction and Ferrante Studies," the article proposes that a double creation of female genealogies is at work within Ferrante’s novels and in the critical field that studies them.

Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Stiliana Milkova edited a special issue for Reading in Translation on the Italian writer Natalia Ginzburg that features 15 essays, interviews, and two first English translations of works by Italo Calvino and by Natalia Ginzburg. Milkova co-translated Italo Calvino's essay "Natalia Ginzburg or the Possibilities of the Bourgeois Novel." 

The book launch of Elena Ferrante as World Literature (Bloomsbury Academic) by Stiliana Milkova, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, will be hosted by the Italian Cultural Institute in Dublin at 7 p.m. (GMT)/2 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday, February 23.

Elena Ferrante as World Literature studies Ferrante’s works as world literature—that is, as literature that circulates in translation outside its culture of origins. Beginning with the creation of the author “Elena Ferrante” and the figure of the translator, Milkova delves into the intricacies of Ferrante’s texts, offering both an introduction to and a sustained reading of Ferrante’s entire literary production to date. The volume will be presented by Dr. Enrica Maria Ferrara (Trinity College Dublin) in conversation with the Milkova and Ferrante's translator, Ann Goldstein. Register your attendance and receive a link to the event, which will be held via Zoom.

Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Stiliana Milkova was selected as one of three judges for 2021 Italian Prose in Translation Prize awarded by the American Association of Literary Translators (ALTA). The other two judges are Oberlin alum Will Schutt and translator and writer Minna Zallman Proctor.

Stiliana Milkova's invited review of Elena Ferrante's new novel The Lying Life of Adults was published in Public Books. 

Stiliana Milkova, associate professor of comparative literature and Italian, edited a special issue of the online journal Reading in Translation dedicated to Elena Ferrante's new novel The Lying Life of Adults. The special issue consists of seven original articles and two first English translations of essays by the Spanish writers Eloy Tizón and Greta Alonso. Professor Milkova also published in The Literary Review a translation from Italian of Tiziano Scarpa's poem "The Philosophy Student."

Stiliana Milkova, associate professor of comparative literature and Italian,  published an essay on the HBO TV series "My Brilliant Friend" in Arcade. 

Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and Italian Stiliana Milkova was interviewed in Italian about the RAI/HBO TV series "My Brilliant Friend." In her interview, Milkova discusses a key change in the adaptation of the TV series from Elena Ferrante's eponymous cycle of four novels. Milkova also reflectes on the role of place and space in Ferrante's novels.

Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and Italian Stiliana Milkova published a translation from Italian of a long interview with the Italian feminist philosopher Adriana Cavarero in the scholarly journal Narrative (2020).

Stiliana Milkova, assistant professor of comparative literature and Italian, published an essay in the Michigan Quarterly Review, reflecting on the pandemic, translation, and the myths of reading and creativity.