Amaryllis Gacioppo is a writer and translator who grew up on Bundjalung country and is currently based in Palermo, Sicily. 

Her debut book Motherlands was published by Bloomsbury UK in 2022. She is currently working on a metafictional historical novel set in Sicily with funding from Creative Australia.

Her short fiction and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in publications such as HEAT, Granta, Meanjin and 3:AM. In 2015, her story “Dreams” won the Lord Mayor of Melbourne Award for Short Story. Her writing has been shortlisted for a number of prizes, including the Scribe Nonfiction Prize, the Overland Story Wine Prize and the Bristol Short Story Prize.

She has a PhD in literature and intercultural communication from Monash University and the University of Bologna. Her doctoral thesis explored flâneuserie in the work of Valeria Luiselli, Vivian Gornick and Igiaba Scego. She has taught in the literary studies department at Monash University and run writing workshops for the Emerging Writers' Festival in Melbourne. She has spoken at writers’ festivals and conferences across Australia, Europe and the United States. 

Her writing is represented by Seren Adams at Lexington Literary.

She also translates from Italian to English. She has translated everything from books and scholarly articles to museum websites and lecture slides. Her translation clients include il Saggiatore, Elastica Live & Communications Agency, universities, cultural institutions, academics and creative people. Her translation of legal scholar Clelia Bartoli’s book Chile Revolts: From Riots Toward a New Constitution, a blend of creative nonfiction and legal philosophy, was published by Accademia University Press in 2022.

She is a graduate of both the University of East Anglia's BCLT Summer School (2022 with Anton Hur and 2024 with Clarissa Botsford), and the National Centre for Writing's Emerging Translator Mentorship program (2021-2022 with Howard Curtis). You can read her translation of Maria Messina's short story "The Empty Apse" online at La Piccioletta Barca.

She can be reached directly for writing or translation queries at amaryllis.mg [at] gmail [dot] com.