Tommaso Pincio is the pseudonym of Marco Colapietro (born May 1, 1963), an Italian author of five novels, including ''Love-shaped story''.

Pseudonym

"Tommaso Pincio" is obviously an Italian rendering of

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, Literary genre, genres and Theme (narrative), th ...

's name but this is not the sole reference for the pseudonym. "

Pincio The Pincian Hill ( ; ) is a hill in the northeast quadrant of the historical centre of Rome. The hill lies to the north of the Quirinal, overlooking the Campus Martius. It was outside the original boundaries of the ancient city of Rome, and wa ...

" is a hill in the center of Rome whose name comes from one of the families that occupied it in the 4th century AD, the Pincii. He claimed that he chose "Tommaso Pincio" as pseudonym just because it comes from his fiction (Tommaso Pincio is a minor character of his first novel); also, he claimed that the name "evokes a place (...). I stole its name because I love the sound of it".

Biography

Even if he is not as extremely reclusive as his American namesake, very few things are known about Tommaso Pincio as a person. He was born in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

sometime in the mid-1960s (an interview published in March 2008 describes him as a "forty-year-old Roman novelist") and graduated in

Visual Arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

. Apparently, he wanted to become a painter but dropped that ambition quite soon. During the 1980s he was an assistant of various artists while also working as a cartoonist. In 1991, he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

where he lived for some years. Going back to Italy, he became the director of a very well known and respected contemporary art gallery. He likely started to think about writing novels during his stay in the United States, getting in touch with the works of

Don DeLillo Donald Richard DeLillo (born November 20, 1936) is an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter, and essayist. His works have covered subjects as diverse as consumerism, nuclear war, the complexities of language, art, televi ...

, and Philip K. Dick who influenced him very strongly. His first novel,'' M.'', was published in 1999. At present, Tommaso Pincio is based in Rome and

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

. He contributes for the Italian edition of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' and several leading newspapers including ''

La Repubblica (; English: "the Republic") is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper with an average circulation of 151,309 copies in May 2023. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and l ...

''.

Bibliography

*''Il dono di saper vivere'', Roma:

Giulio Einaudi Giulio Einaudi (; 2 January 1912 – 5 April 1999) was an Italian book publisher. The eponymous company that he founded in 1933 became "a European wellspring of fine literature, intellectual thought and political theory"Saxon, Wolfgang ''The Ne ...

Editore 2018 *''Scrissi d'Arte'', Roma: L'Orma Editore 2015 *''Panorama'', Milano:

NN Editore NN, Nn, or nn may refer to: NN/nn, Nynorsk, a Norwegian written language (ISO 639 alpha-1 code "nn"). They are sometimes used on websites to distinguish them from their counterparts Bokmål. E.g. nn.wikipedia.org vs no.wikipedia.org. Businesses ...

2015 *''Acque Chete'', Ascoli Piceno: Mirror Editore 2014 *''Pulp Roma'', Milan: Il Saggiatore Editore 2012 *''Hotel a zero stelle'', literary memoir, Bari: Laterza Editore 2011 *''Cinacittà'', novel, Turin:

Editore 2008 *''Gli Alieni: come e perché sono giunti fra noi'', historical essay, Rome: Fazi Editore 2006 *''La ragazza che non era lei'', novel, Turin:

Editore 2005 *''Un amore dell'altro mondo'', novel, Turin:

Editore 2002 (translated in English as ''Love-shaped Story'' by Jonathan Hunt, London (UK): HarperCollins 2004) *''Lo spazio sfinito'', novel, Rome: Fanucci Editore, 2000 (translated in English as ''Beat Space'' by Acacia M. O'Connor, Rochester, NY: Open Letter 2016) *''M.'', novel, Naples: Cronopio Editore, 1999

Footnotes and references

External links

Official website''Aliens don't suck!'', a web-magazine run by Tommaso Pincio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pincio, Tommaso Living people 21st-century Italian novelists Writers from Rome 1963 births