Antonio Porta (author)

Antonio Porta (the pen-name of Leo Paolazzi) was an author and poet and one of the founders of the Italian literary movement Gruppo 63.

Biography
Antonio Porta was born Leo Paolazzi in Vicenza, 1935. In 1958 he became an editor of the literary magazine Il Verri under Luciano Anceschi. During his time as an editor he wrote a collection of poems to be included in the anthology I novissimi (1961), which included works by Elio Pagliarani, Edoardo Sanguineti, Alfredo Giuliani, and Nanni Balestrini.

Gruppo 63
From his experience with il verri he began collaborating with an avanguard Italian movement called Gruppo 63. While working to develop their ideas, Porta travelled to the conventions they had in Palermo, Reggio Emilia, La Sapienza, and Fano.

From 1963 to 1967, Porta was actively involved in the editing of another avant-garde magazine Malebolge from Reggio Emilia. In these years he also began working in visual poetry, participating in exhibitions in Padova, Rome, Milan, and London. His work that is most linked to this period is Zero (1963).

Later career
He contributed as a literary critic for renowned Italian newspapers like Il Corriere della Sera, and Il Giorno and collaborated with Tuttolibri, Panorama, L'Europeo. He was the director and active editor of the monthly Alfabeta and La Gola.

From 1982 to 1988 he taught at the University of Chieti, then Yale, the University of Pavia, the Sapienza University of Rome, and the University of Bologna.