BIO

Sara Florian achieved a B.A. Honours Degree (110 and honours) in Foreign Languages and an M.A. (Summa Cum Laude) in European and Post-Colonial Languages at Cà Foscari University of Venice with an Erasmus programme in France at Université de Paris - Sorbonne (Paris IV) and École Normale Supérieure (Paris IV - ENS).

 

Afterwards, she obtained a Ph.D. in Modern Philology in Venice, Italy (Ca' Foscari University) and a Visiting Fellowship at Singapore Management University (SMU, Singapore). She currently teaches at the National University of Singapore (NUS), lecturing in Italian language and culture at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YST).

 

She has travelled extensively around the world and is enthusiastic about learning new languages as well as deciphering ancient ones. Her Venetian roots accompanied her throughout her journeys.

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Internationally, her articles, essays, reviews and poems appeared in World Literature Today, Caribbean Quarterly, The Caribbean Writer, among several others. In May 2021, Sinking City, the literary magazine of the University of Miami, published one of her hybrid works (poem + watercolour) as cover art. Water is omnipresent in her work.

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She published the bilingual novel Luce, La Città Morente Che Mi Ha Fatto Rinascere / Light, The Dying City Which Gave Me Life Again (2011) and as a Caribbeanist she also published a book on comparative and contemporary Caribbean literature, Caribbean Counterpoint: The Aesthetics of Salt in Lasana Sekou (2019).

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Caribbean Counterpoint has been reviewed and praised as follows:

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     “An ‘engaging’ study of St. Martin’s people, culture, history, landscape through literature”, House of Nehesi Publishers, St. Martin

 

     “an engaging, illuminating and important study of Sekou’s use of the metaphor of salt in his poetry”, Dr. St Hope Earl Mc Kenzie, Jamaica

 

      “Sara’s book at its best is an insightful work of an engaged critic”, Dr. Kei Miller, Jamaica/UK

 

     “Dr. Florian's study delves deep into not only the poetry but also into the fiction and essays of this politically committed, coolly confident, witty and lively writer and activist.", Anton G. Leitner, editor, Das Gedicht, Germany

 

      “a tremendously important book, CLR James is looking down on you with pride.”, Prof. Paul Buhle, USA

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      “Undoubtedly, Dr. Florian has produced more than a hagiographic monument on a Caribbean icon. Not unlike Sekou, she presents an epistemology that is non-dualistic and absorbent. Hers is a thesis that continues to build on insights as she journeys through regions and cultures (…).”, Dr. Glenville Ashby, Guyana/New York.

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​In 2021 her poem "The Lost Seasons", inspired by Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons was performed at the Esplanade, Singapore, at a concert by Red Dot Baroque.

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She was awarded as one of the shortlisted winners at the “Catharsis” Poetry Festival Singapore in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

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