My name is Sergio Baratto. I was born in the province of Milan on the 18th of June, 1973. Great year (though I obviously have no memory of it): a lot of awesome music, photographs in saturated colors, miniskirts and bell-bottom jeans.
My ancestors were apes.
A few drops of neanderthalian blood flow in my veins.
My roots are celtic, italic, germanic, mediterranean, middle-eastern, african.
I’m italian, european, citizen of the world, son of the Earth, inhabitant of the Solar System, member of the Milky way.
All this necessarily makes me an internationalist :-D
I graduated from the University of Milan in Russian language and literature with a thesis on Soviet rock music.
My first personal / public blog was called “Tunga!” and survived from March 2003 to December 2011 on Splinder. The whole archive of those almost nine years can be consulted here on this blog.
From 2003 to 2005 I was part of the Nazione Indiana collective. In 2005 I was one of the founders of the blog Il primo amore, and since then I have been part of his editorial board. Since 2007 I am also editor of the homonymous paper magazine.
Politics: libertarian socialist, Zapatist-Leopardian Division, Camillo Berneri Brigade, Dostoevskij Column, Victor Serge Company.
I can’t stand stupidity, arrogance, arrivisme, and the dogma of irony.
(But also tankies, conspiracists & anti-vaxxers.)
I hate nationalism, fascism, bigotry, anti-Semitism, racism.
Injustice, authoritarianism, prevarication.
Homophobia, sexism and violence against women.
I love:
walking
writing
playing
condensed milk
yellow risotto
illuminated windows
Herodotus
Murasaki Shikibu
Emily Dickinson
reading quantum physics books understanding 10 per cent of them
the Grateful Dead
the Pink Floyd
jazz
John Coltrane
Mozart’s Don Giovanni
Bach’s Mass in B minor
sacred music
odours
birdsongs in the morning
twilights
the river Ticino (meine Haimat)
wandering in the woods
living on the mountains the mountains the mountains
In October 2012 my first book, Diario di un’insurrezione, was published by Effigie.
My first novel, La Steppa (Mondadori Strade blu, 2016), won the 2016 edition of the Berto Prize.
My second novel, My Favorite Things (Minimum Fax), came out in April 2023.
I stand with Ukraine.
«Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.»
Bruciare nel buio 