© Patricia Vergeylen

Lamberto Tassinari was born in Castelfiorentino and spent his childhood on the island of Elba. After obtaining a degree in Philosophy from the University of Florence, he lived in Rome, Milan and Turin where he worked as a teacher and in several publishing companies. He moved to Montreal in 1981. Two years later he was one of the founders of the transcultural magazine ViceVersa which he directed until its last issue in 1997. Between 1982 and 2007, he taught Italian language and literature at the Université de Montréal. In 1985 he published a novel, Durante la partenza, in 1999 a collection of essays, Utopies par le hublot and in 2008 Shakespeare? È il nome d'arte di John Florio. An English version John Florio The Man Who Was Shakespeare, was published in September 2009. He is currently at work on his second novel and on a production of The Tempest  to be staged in Naples. For the first time ever, the play's autobiographical nature will reveal the underlying, true identity of the Bard: John Florio.