Riccardo Frolloni's hybrid poetry collection 'Amigdala' blends verse, prose, and photography

Riccardo Frolloni (born 1993 in Macerata, Italy) has released 'Amigdala' (Nino Aragno Editore, 2024), a complex work combining poetry, prose, and photography. The book explores themes of family, periphery, and post-Soviet capitalism, framed by the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu. Frolloni, a graduate in Italian literature from the University of Bologna, previously published 'Corpo striato' (Industria & Letteratura, 2021), which won the Premio PordenoneLegge – I Poeti di Vent’anni and the Premio Versante Ripido. He has translated Richard Harrison's 'Sul non perdere le ceneri di mio padre nell’alluvione' (2018) and edited the anthology 'Non praticare il cannibalismo' of Ron Padgett's work (Del Vecchio Editore, 2021). Frolloni writes for the music magazine Impatto Sonoro, founded the association Lo Spazio Letterario, and teaches Italian and Latin in high schools. In an interview, he describes 'Amigdala' as the result of years of experimentation with narrative and poetic forms, incorporating photographs and technical prose to create an oblique rhythm. He identifies the center of his writing as familial, centered on his parents and his hometown Sarnano in the Macerata hinterland near the Monti Sibillini. The book addresses the creeping dictatorship of capitalism, which manifests after the fall of Ceaușescu's regime. Frolloni emphasizes the importance of avoiding egocentrism in poetry, treating the self as a character, as in Dante's 'Commedia'.