Carlos A. Pittella

from my 3rd book Waterbaby @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social

"Catfish"

Photo of poet with sunglasses, Brazilian flowery T-shirt, green earbuds, & leather jacket, in a Parma piazza.

Ciao from Parma,
looking for Pessoa,
who dreamt a dream of Parma
that became a rhizomatic play
about the limits of sanity
that now is a collective dream…

Mailbox from Parma, red and full of stickers. It features two compartments: one for local mail, another for everywhere else…

Just mailed some postcards from Italy & the mailbox is its own postcard 💙

Home

3/3 If you happen to be in Bielefeld, join us. I'm looking forward to meeting & dialoguing with other researchers doing transdisciplinary work in Medical Humanities❗

👉 For more info on Assisted Lab: assistedlab.ch

Carlos Pittella, Assisted Lab Expiring visas: Outlining the right to die through bordercrossing narratives in Spanish and Portuguese Do we need a visa to die? How to get one? What if it expires before we do? From ancient mythologies to Hollywood, the process of dying has been narrated as a migration with checkpoints—to the underworld, to heaven, through cycles, rivers, tunnels... Contemporary representations of assisted dying contend with that bordercrossing in symbolic and pragmatic ways; agency over death may be granted here, but unthinkable there. For example, in José Saramago’s 2005 novel 'As intermitências da morte', suddenly, within the limits of one country, people can no longer die; the questions then converge towards the border, to who is willing to cross it, and the consequences of crossing it. This workshop will invite participants to reimagine the bureaucratic borders of assisted dying, inspired by cultural objects from Latin America and the Iberian peninsula reviewed in Assisted Lab’s Living Archive of Assisted Dying. We will approach the narratives constructed by these multimedia objects (novels, featured films, memoirs, blogs) as a means to unpack the complexity of the assisted dying debate. Throughout the workshop, we will collectively map values, expectations, and trade-offs involved in such bordercrossings, challenged by the dilemmas of those who decide to migrate to die (e.g. Tomás González’s 2011 novel La luz difícil, Gina Montaner’s 2024 memoir Deséenme un buen viaje), as well as how differently those decisions reverberate through borders (e.g. Leo Zelig’s 2016 film Translúcido) or across media (e.g. Ana Estrada’s 2019–2024 blog)...

2/3 I'm thrilled to share some insights at Bielefeld University on Mar/6, during the MED METHODS event, dedicated to Experimental Research.

ℹ️ My intervention is titled: «Expiring visas: Outlining the right to die through bordercrossing narratives in Spanish and Portuguese.»

Here's my abstract.

Slide from Carlos A. Pittella's workshop «Expiring visas: Outlining the right to die through bordercrossing narratives in Spanish and Portuguese,» prepared for the MED METHODS at Bielefeld University, March 6, 2026. The slide displays a border guard officer inspecting someone's passport, while a hand is being fingerprinted, and a camera visible. Four arrows show keywords around the scene: VALUES, EXPECTATIONS, TRADE-OFFS, and NARRATIVE AGENCY.

1/3 Since 2024, I have collaborated with @assistedlab.bsky.social to research cultural objects that have influenced the legal debate on MAiD.

💡 As my work has been haunted by borders & bureaucracies, I became interested in how MAiD is often framed as a bordercrossing that requires a visa.

Directed by Leonard Zelig, a Venezuelan-born resident of NYC, the film 'Translúcido' was co-produced by Ecuador, Venezuela, & the USA—3 countries with different laws regarding assisted dying.

#LatAmCinema #LatinxFilms #LatinxCinema #LatinoFilms #LatinoCinema #CinemaLatino #MAiD #AssistedDying

'Translúcido' by Leonard Zelig The film follows the last day of Rubén, an Ecuadorian immigrant living in NYC, who decides to forgo cancer treatment and end his life by midnight.

'Translúcido' follows the last day of Rubén, an Ecuadorian immigrant in NYC who decided to forgo cancer treatment & end his life.

An ECU/VEN/USA co-production, the film has reverberated differently in the 3 countries.

I've written for @assistedlab.bsky.social about the film & its repercussions.

& what a fabulous piece! Love this interrogative mode:

“BEFORE TREES? WHAT WAS THAT LIKE? TO WATCH THOSE GIANT MYSTERIES GROW FROM NOTHING?”

An Apology to Scream Over the Wind When You Stumble Upon a Horseshoe Crab at the Delaware Bay by Adam Gianforcaro I’M SORRY FOR DISTURBING YOU. FOR THE KIDS TWIRLING YOU BY YOUR TAIL AND LEAVING YOU BELLY UP. I AM SORRY FOR ONCE BEING A CHILD. I AM SORRY TOO FOR BEING A MAN. FOR THE NATURE OF MEN. THAT THE SHELLS…

a knockout of a scream from Adam Gianforcaro that I love more and more every reread

"I SAY I’LL BE BETTER BUT I WON’T BE BETTER. HUMANS SAY THAT A LOT. THE FIRST PART AT LEAST. ABOUT BEING BETTER. I’M SORRY ABOUT THAT TOO. WE SAY THINGS WE DON’T MEAN..."

https://www.havehashad.com/m7psu

Photo of I Will Not Be Scared picture book

Photo of the dedication page of I Will Not Be Scared

This book has the most scathing dedication by an illustrator I have ever seen (and he is completely right)

#kidlit

International conference: Unveiling The Duke of Parma Università di Parma 23rd February 9.30 Conference opening Paolo Martelli (University of Parma) Massimo Magnani (DUSIC Department Director) 10.00 Enrico Martines and Elena Lombardo Setting the Stage: Project Review, Digital Archive Presentation and Conference Overview 10.30 Jeronimo Pizarro and Nicolas Barbosa (Universidad de Los Andes) Transcribing Fernando Pessoa Discussant: Carlos Pittella (Universidade de Lisboa) Chair: Enrico Martines 12.00 Joao Dionisio and Maria Sousa (Universidade de Lisboa) The Duke of Parma: the organization of the document witnesses Discussant: Sakari Katajamäki (Finnish Literature Society) Chair: Simone Celani 15.30 Elena Lombardo (Universidade de Lisboa) Modelling the Unfinished and Fragmentary: the “Duke of Parma” TEI standard Full Program: https://www.dukeofparma.unipr.it/news-events/international-conference-unveiling-the-duke-of-parma/

The University of Parma has been transcribing the 200+ fragments that compose the play &, on Feb 23-24, will share its 1st digital edition!

I'm thrilled to join this unveiling as a discussant.

Anyone near Parma, join us to debate mad kings & our collective foolishness❗

www.dukeofparma.unipr.it

Pessoa left us an unpublished play titled «The Duke of Parma»:

ℹ️ A Duke that may or may not be mad, but who is certainly murderous/misogynistic. Councilors debate his ability to govern while plotting to overthrow him, whereas the Duke thinks his councilors are fools!

🤔 Strangely contemporary, no?

For those of you who double-dip in social media, I hear there's an Instagram version of the reading too ☺️: www.instagram.com/reel/DUbqZrC...

"The death of Jean Charles de Menezes" by Carlos A. Pittella YouTube video by Frontier Poetry

Late to my own game, just realized that Frontier shared my reading from "The death of Jean Charles de Menezes"❗

Gratitude to the amazing judge @ariamisha.bsky.social, then-editor Megan Kim, & the whole Frontier team ❤️‍🔥

👉 For the full poem & Aria's blurb: www.frontierpoetry.com/2023/04/11/c...

Three Poems by Bea Sophia Service The Con Ed statement arrives for Arthur who died on the landing I slit the paper with a house key The bar graph confirms his current usage has not

don't miss these from Bea Sophia!

the last is maybe especially my fave

"My friend Emma asked if the poem about the Pret bathroom
was about her and I said no it was about Rebecca
and Rebecca asked if the poem about missing the bus
was about her..."

https://www.havehashad.com/oiayt

Congrats on TACOMA, Aaron—& this is what I call a party! 🤩

Toad sits in the dark by his garden, reading a story to his seeds by candlelight. From "The Garden" In *Frog and Toad Together*

“I will read the seeds a story,” said Toad. “Then they will not be afraid.”

Toad read a long story to his seeds.

So exciting & so excited to read this book! 💙

Thanks to @alllitupcanada.bsky.social for sharing this sneak peek from my book!

Every once in a while, I find myself thinking of "When the Devil Leads Us Home and Yells Surprise"

So, this Dusie is a wonderful surprise. 💙 Thank you, @nikkimwalls.bsky.social, thank you @robmclennan.bsky.social!

So wonderful to meet a new Nikki Wallschlaeger poem—& to watch it burn layers of BS rhetoric down to the core of power ❤️‍🔥

Lead paint?! 😳

You are who I love, throwing your hands up in agony or disbelief, shaking your head, arguing back, out loud or inside of yourself, holding close your incredulity which, yes, too, l love I love your working heart, how each of its gestures, tiny or big, stand beside my own agony, building a forest there How “Fuck you” becomes a love song You are who I love, carrying the signs, packing the lunches, with the rain on your face You at the edges and shores, in the rooms of quiet, in the rooms of shouting, in the airport terminal, at the bus depot saying “No!” and each of us looking out from the gorgeous unlikelihood of our lives at all, finding ourselves here, witnesses to each other's tenderness, which, this moment, is fury, is rage, which, this moment, is another way of saying: You are who I love You are who I love You and you and you are who

How “Fuck you” becomes a love song

Aracelis Girmay

Yeah, so great!

Loved Your Name Here too—as anything HDW has ever written! 🔥

The stories from Some Trick have been haunting me lately... If you're yet to read them, expect a treat!

She is—or was, for a second! I hope she comes back &/or reactivates her account:

bsky.app/profile/hele...

...I never miss twitter, but I do miss her piercing tweets 💙

Here’s your morning mood, courtesy of Jon MacNair.

"My bookmark
is the folded up operating

instructions for a pulse oximeter. 1.
Operation of the product is simple

and convenient. 5. Finger and body
should not tremble

during measuring."

—Lindsay Tigue, from the stunning "Campaign Strategy" ❤️‍🔥

I’ve written for @assistedlab.bsky.social about José Saramago’s fabulous novel “Death with Interruptions,” focusing on the ethical questions it raises around assisted dying.