Virginia Jewiss received her Ph.D. in Italian literature from Yale University, and taught at Dartmouth College before moving to Italy. Her translations into Italian of works by Groucho Marx, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Johnston McCulley, and Edgar Rice Burroughs have been published by Mondadori, and her English translation of Melania Mazzucco's novel Vita will be published in September by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. She currently lives in Rome, where she translates and teaches Italian literature.