Dario Bellezza

1944—1996

Dario Bellezza was a prize-winning Italian poet, novelist, and playwright who died from AIDS-related complications. His work was championed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Alberto Moravia, and Elsa Morante. Bellezza was Pasolini’s secretary for a time and wrote an important nonfiction exposé that revealed the political motivation behind Pasolini’s murder in 1975. He won wide acclaim, including the Viareggio Prize, Italy’s most prestigious poetry recognition, for Morte segreta (Secret Death) in 1976, as well as the Montale Prize (1994) and the Gatti Prize (1971). In 2015, Mondadori published Bellezza’s Collected Poems in Italian, while, in 2025, the University of Wisconsin Press published the first English-language translation of Bellezza's work, What Sex Is Death? (translated by Peter Covino). 

  • Article

    Drink Me, Lick Me Even

    By Daniel Felsenthal

    Dario Bellezza scandalized Italy with unabashedly queer poetry about cruising and AIDS. Nearly thirty years after his death, a new translation brings his work into English.