Davide Avolio is an authentic and multifaceted voice of the new Italian artistic generation. A writer of “The boys who love are invisible to everyone”, poet, and content creator, he seamlessly moves between novel pages, theater stages, and digital screens, intertwining personal experiences and worldviews in a continuous flow of creative expression. In this interview, he shares his journey — from his love of poetry sparked in high school to writing as a tool for emotional survival, exploring his complex relationship with Naples, and his desire to share culture through social media. An intimate and sincere voyage, where art becomes both a mirror of the soul and a key to deciphering the reality around us.
Writer, Poet, Content Creator who finds himself in bookstores, at the theater, and on social media: who is Davide Avolio, and how do you manage to combine all these passions and aspects of your personality to express them at their best?
Davide is a young adult who, like all his peers, tries to carve out a small space in the complex fabric of our time, in the vast and daunting world that unfolds before those born and raised in this era. I have never had to particularly combine the aspects that later became elements of my artistic and professional career because they are already mixed within me. Not so much because of any genius, I’d say more due to a simple inclination for artistic expression that I’ve had since I was a child.
Do you remember the book that first made you passionate about reading and then about poetry specifically?
The poetry book that made me passionate about the genre was Fiore di poesia, an anthology of poems by Alda Merini, published by Giulio Einaudi Editore. The book that first made me fall in love with reading as a child was Moby Dick.
How did you come to writing, and how has this artistic expression evolved over time?
I came to it out of necessity in life; writing was my first form of expression as a teenager. I owe it all to high school, particularly the Classical Studies program, for steering me in this direction. Over time, writing continuously evolves; I believe it is susceptible to even daily changes. It only takes a verse read in passing, a conversation that particularly moves me, a peony wilting by the side of the road, and my writing inevitably changes and evolves. Currently, I am in a reflective phase of my poetry, where I no longer write to please others. I write to process what I live, but especially what I endure, starting from the horror we are forced to witness in the world every day.
“The boys who love are invisible to everyone” is your first novel, and as you admit in your author’s notes, there are references to your personal experience. How was it to balance Davide the writer and Lorenzo the “imaginary” protagonist?
It was complex because I often realized that I had overlapped my own thoughts with what Lorenzo should have been thinking. I must have reread the work at least ten times in full, through drafts and the final version, but I still find small answers from Lorenzo that I would refine and make “less similar” to what I would have said.
Near the beginning of the book, Lorenzo talks about loneliness and how he overcame it through books and video games, eventually stating that he has accepted the label of nerd with great serenity. Was that the case for you as well? Considering how the term nerd has changed over the years and taken on different meanings.
I have always been peacefully nerdy. Unlike Lorenzo, I never had to endure any loneliness because of it. I’ve always been fortunate to be surrounded by friends, both boys and girls, and I learned at a young age the potential value of a chosen, sought-after solitude. As Faber would have said, a bridge to extraordinary forms of freedom.
Laura, the girl who opens the door to love for Lorenzo, is more of an “angel-monster” to me than an angelic woman, the kind that the Stilnovists dedicated their works to (besides, she shares a name with the woman loved by Petrarch). Is this reference accurate?
Yes, Laura is portrayed in this way because it’s Lorenzo (an adult Lorenzo, writing years later) who tells us about her, and he still sees her that way. The paranoias he speaks of when he calls her an “angel-monster” refer to events you haven’t read yet, which I hope to include in future books. The reference to Laura of Petrarch is not intentional, except for the fact that both Laura and Lorenzo derive from the Latin word laurus, which referred to the laurel plant, the symbol of Apollo, god of the arts and poetry. (Laurentius has a weaker root, but it still derives from it). Laura is also the representation of Lorenzo’s poetry, which starts pure, virginal, unscathed by the world, still unable to harm it, yet so categorical and present.
True love, love as friendship, love for family, for what we study, and as a way to discover and rediscover ourselves. Given the many facets of the term, which are also very personal, what is love for you today?
The precise and perfect balance between life and death, the calmness of a solid, peaceful relationship.
The book also represents almost an odi et amo relationship with the city of Naples, which we explore through Lorenzo’s story: what is your relationship with this city?
It’s exactly an odi et amo relationship, as Catullus would say. I owe everything to Naples, but I often feel deeply the contradictions it carries.
How is the tour with La Genovese going in theaters? How did you prepare for the performance of poetic expression?
The tour is going very well. In the first dates, we had a small but emotionally rich participation. The spectators leave the theater excited and happy, stopping to chat, take photos, and get their books signed. For me and Gennaro, that’s truly what matters. As for preparation for poetic performance, I’ve been involved in live events for two years, interpreting and reciting poetry, including Poetry Slams, which I’ve participated in multiple times, both as a slammer and as an MC.
Speaking of forms of expression, we can’t not mention your content creation work: how does the content creation and selection process unfold?
It now exclusively comes from what strikes me: something I read, something I see on social media, or simply a conversation that particularly enlightens me. Occasionally, I recover some classics and read them, even though they don’t need me to “disseminate” them. There’s also current affairs, in its terrible manifestations, which offers many starting points for video creation based on literature.
What has been the best reaction so far to what you do, both on social media and as feedback from your performances or the novel?
The best reactions come from people, often young, who’ve admitted to starting to read/write poetry after watching some of my videos. At the performances, the ones that leave me with a full heart are the older people, the adults, who come to compliment me.
The book(s) on your nightstand.
Right now, I’m reading Every Morning in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa; Amulets by Lorenzo Pataro; Teutoburg by Valerio Massimo Manfredi; Venuto al mondo by Margaret Mazzantini.
What is the verse of a poem or the literary quote that represents you the most at this moment?
“I place a lens
before my heart,
to show it to people.
Who am I?
The jester of my soul.”
— Palazzeschi
What’s the latest thing you’ve discovered about yourself through all that you do?
That I’m much more insecure than I thought, and it will take years of work and therapy to eliminate my need for external approval regarding what I do.
What’s your happy place?
The late-night moment when I can write, scroll, listen to music, and smoke away from the world, from everyone, and from worries; whether it’s on my balcony at home or on the windowsill of a hotel room.
Thanks to Mondadori
What do you think?