Lily Prigioniero

Lily Prigioniero received her degree in English literature from University of Michigan then moved to Florence, Italy, to be certified and worked as an art conservator on historical masterpieces. She also received her MFA in creative writing from the Università degli Studi di Siena where her novel, La Cena del Tacchino, won the international literary prize “Premio Internazionale Anguillara Città d’Arte” in Rome, as well as nominated for the literary prize “Penna d’Autore”. Her poems have appeared in various publications including Italian Americana, the Orchard Review, Grand Little Things, and Judith Duprè’s Full of Grace (Random House). Her paintings have been used for The Ekphrastic Review ("The Poet") as well as Rattle Literary Magazine ("The Seamstress") where she was also a judge for both their Ekphrastic Challenge. She received a full scholarship for the Billy Collins poetry workshop “New Voices” at the Key West Literary Seminar and has taught writing for New York University’s Global Studies Program, Brandeis Midyear Study Abroad, as well as art conservation at the Florence University of the Arts. Her poem "Flying South", published in the Earthly edition of The Polaris Trilogy, 2023, was sent to the Moon with a NASA flight in January, 2025 and succesfully landed one month later. She lives most of the year with her family near Florence, and part-time in the U.S.