Born in Messina, in 1968 Insana moved to Rome where she graduated in Ancient Literature with a thesis on Erinna's The Distaff.
Active as a translator of classical and contemporary authors, she debuted as a poet in 1977, with the collection Sciarra amara ("Bitter Harvest").
[1][2] Giovanni Raboni described Insana's poetic style as "visionary concreteness".
[1] The first full-length collection of Insana’s poetry in English was translated by Catherine Theis and published by the University of Chicago Press in October 2024 as Slashing Sounds (Fendenti fonici; Società di poesia, Milan, 1982).
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