Balestrini, Nanni

Nanni Balestrini (1935-2019) was a member of the avant-garde poets’ group I Novissimi and one of the founders of Gruppo 63 in 1963. From 1962 to 1972 he was literary director at the Milanese publisher Feltrinelli, and edited the cultural monthlies “Quindici” and “Alfabeta”. Writing mainly about the social movements of his time, he became known to a wider public in the early 1970s with his first novel, “Vogliamo tutto” (We want everything). He was one of the founders of the Potere operaio group in 1976, an important supporter of Italian Autonomia. In 1979, he was prosecuted for subversive association and forming an armed gang, and forced into exile, before being found not guilty in 1984.