In Naples she did voluntary work as a teacher at the Associazione Risveglio Napoli, a lay association which offered free classes for children and adults from the Neapolitan lower classes (1960-67). At the same time she obtained a degree in languages from the Istituto Universitario Orientale and had a daughter (1966). Between the birth of her daughter and 1984, she taught French in state schools. During the 1970s, she played an important role as a social and political activist with the Centro di Coordinamento Campano, a small organisation of the new left which worked primarily with the urban unemployed and poor agricultural labourers. The latter experience was recorded in her first publication: Napoli. I disoccupati organizzati. I protagonisti raccontano (1977, 1998).

As the titles of her books demonstrate, place and travel are most important to Ramondino’s work, which moves incessantly between Naples, Italy, Europe and beyond.

She died in Gaeta in June 2008, the day before the publication of her novel La Via.

She was awarded the literary prizes ‘Premio Napoli’, ‘Premio Settembrini’ (Mestre), ‘Elsa Morante. Isola di Procida’, ‘Grinzane–Cavour’, ‘Civiltà del Mare–S. Felice al Circeo’, ‘Leonardo Sciascia–Grotte’.

This biography was put together by Adalgisa Giorgio (A.Giorgio@bath.ac.uk), November 2009