Dario Bellezza (1944–1996) was Italy’s first openly gay, major prizewinning poet-novelist-playwright who died a premature death of AIDS-related complications. Over the course of a twenty-five-year career, he published more than twenty books including eight full-length poetry collections, eight novels, two plays, translations from the French, and nonfiction. Influenced by Rimbaud, the Beats, and the growing European rights movements, he won the Viareggio Prize, Italy’s most prestigious poetry award, and the Montale Prize for lifetime poetic achievement. The sheer variety of forms, from epigram to brash love-lyric to sustained political narrative, coupled with the fervor of Bellezza’s voice make a compelling argument for his lasting importance among the best poets of the second half of the twentieth century.