We’re excited to announce our fourth-year graduate student, Samuel Zawacki, has won the 2023 “Essays” Competition and will be a Translator-in-residence at the Fondazione Ugo da Como this summer! Sponsored by the Centro per il libro e la letteratura and the Ministero della Cultura, this summer residency will support Samuel as he continues to work on his translation of Romina Cecconi’s Io, “la Romanina.” Witten by the first trans woman in Italy, Cecconi’s memoir is an integral part of the Italian trans canon and will be an important primary source in Samuel’s dissertation project on dissimulation in trans self-narration.