Nessi's ... strength as a poet rests with his own distinctive and daring language - a spirit level that enables him always to align himself with the subject of his verse. And, if his work is the product of a rational and realistic pessimism - occasionally softened by irony, it is also true that Nessi's emotional and ethical empathy deepens his analysis and heightens his response. - Marco Sonzogni

Born in Medrisio and now living in Bruzella in Switzerland's Italian-speaking region, Alberto Nessi (1940) was educated at the teachers training college of Locarno and at the University of Fribourg. He has worked for many years as a teacher. Nessi has published eight books of poems. The most recent, Ladro di minuzie. Poesie scelte (Trivia Thief. Selected Poems), is the bilingual volume published here for the first time in English translation. According to influential critic Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo, Nessi's poetry 'moves between a constantly engaged memory and the present as seen through the shutters of a window.'