Francesca Ferrauto

SEO Writer

Francesca was born in Italy and has studied in London and Kyoto: she now lives in Berlin, where she is a digital editor. She is interested in meta-writing and everything surreal. Her work bends languages, genres and grammar norms. Her poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in Gravitas, Beyond Words, From Whispers to Roars, Berlino Magazine, Il Mitte, and other journals. She has served on the board of the Women Writing Berlin Lab.

Follow her @franciwrites | Online Portfolio

Tell us who you are in 3 book titles:

J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series & Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series

I’m Italian-born and raised by Italian parents, yet I speak like Mary Poppins. This is mainly due to the insane obsession I had with these two series growing up. Harry Potter needs no introduction: a young boy, an outcast, who suddenly finds out he is the most famous (and unluckiest) boy in a world of magic. He fights evil. In a way, Anita Blake does the same, although slowly becoming evil herself. She is the toughest and scariest girl I had ever read of before the age of twelve.

Jessa Crispin’s The Dead Ladies Project 

After wandering the world, I landed in Berlin and stopped for the first time in ten years. That is when my demons caught up with me. Jessa Crispin’s book is a self-discovery travel through Europe: the protagonist has lived in Berlin for a while and decided to embark on one last journey before returning to her homeland. She is a spinster with no orientation and no precise goal: a refreshing change from the superheroes of my childhood readings. I even met the author—she was wearing some crazy yellow tights.

Aoko Matsuda’s The Girl Who is Getting Married

Jessa Crispin is the reason I started writing again, but Aoko Matsuda is the author I want to write like. She is a feminist in Japan, and trust me when I say women in Europe have it easy. Her feminism is an “everyday” gentle fight, precise and quiet, nothing comparable to the loud protesters in the West. As a European I must admit that the cultural predominance of English literature was starting to suffocate my own voice: I decided to read more translation, and so should you. <3