Jón Kalman Stefánsson is a poet who writes novels, he was once a poet who wrote poetry. La prima volta che il dolore mi salvò la vita is a collection of three poetry books translated into Italian, the first works the Icelandic author ever published. During the event, where was joined by Silvia Cosimini, his Italian translator, and Silvia Righi, who interviewed him, Stefánsson spoke about the origins of the book as an experience of reconnection with his past and of synthesis with his present. “I thought I was done with poetry, I couldn’t recognize myself in it anymore. Then my younger self came up to me, skinny and drunk on whiskey, and asked: “Why do you not want to know me?”. I apologized.” Through the story and the analysis of his creative life, from the influence of Tom Waits’ music to his most recent poem on Death, Stefánsson spoke of poetry not only as a literary format but as a way of experiencing reality and talking about it that also can be present in other forms of writing, to the point where he defined himself as a smuggler of poetry in his work as a novelist.

The strength of poetry lies in its ability to be born both from reality and from dreams, fantasy, inner depths, eliminating every kind of barrier and border between the different levels of the human experience. As the author put it, poetry aids humanity in its search for identity and truth, which is everlasting, doomed to failure and - because of this - extremely fun and interesting. In the last part of the event the author paid his debt with his past self with some advice for young poets: write because you need too, read works from all over the world, become a master of language.