?Katia Pizzi is Senior Lecturer in Italian Studies at the Institute of Modern Languages Research, University of London and Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in London, UK. She has published extensively on the literary culture, memory and history of cities, especially the volumes The Literary Identities of European Cities (2011), Trieste: italianità, triestinità e male di frontiera (2007) and A City in Search of an Author: The Literary Identity of Trieste (2001). Pizzi’s most recent books include Italian Futurism and the Machine (2019), a monograph focusing on the cultural relationships between Modernism and industrial technology, including ‘peripheral’ areas. Pizzi’s current research interests include urban Modernism, the Cold War, future cities and cultural memory. Since 2020 Pizzi has been Director of the Italian Cultural Institute London, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.Roberta GefterWondrich is Associate Professor in English Literature at the University of Trieste, Italy, and general editor of Prospero, Rivista di letterature e culture straniere – A Journal of foreign literatures and cultures. She specialises in the field of contemporary Irish fiction, on which she has written a book and many articles. Her field of interests includes the contemporary English and Irish novel, neo-Victorianism, biofiction, James Joyce, J. M. Coetzee, thing theory and sea narratives. She is currently working on a monograph on the cultural object in contemporary fiction in English.