A community that reads and that thinks, that is reappointed with that very special space that is the “agora”, the square in its ancient conception, as a meeting and exchange, where the word becomes dialectic and bond, and the shared memory becomes wealth: all this, and much more, has emerged in the five evenings of the review “La square and the book” of Acri, which has also become a literary prize this year, promoted by the municipal administration, in the culture, poetry, non -fiction and narrative joints.
The first edition of the award was won – at the unquestionable judgment of the jury, chaired by prof. Carlo Fanelli (associate disu unical) – by Anna Mallamo, Reggina, journalist of the Gazzetta, with his novel “I see it with the dark” (Einaudi, 2025). The award ceremony took place at the end of the participatory final evening, after the round table that retraced the review and its fundamental themes, evoking the figures of the jurist and poet Giuseppe Antonio Arena, to whom the prize is named, but also by Vincenzo Padula and Pierpaolo Pasolini. The prize was awarded by the mayor Pino Capalbo.
“For his very personal writing – reads the motivation -, almost a flow of consciousness, full of unpublished and multifaceted looks; An engaging style, supported by a language in which the use of dialectal terms inframeizes thoughts, making the reader penetrate even more in the universe of the protagonist … for a narrative that overcomes the genres and crosses multiple themes, between the narrative novel and the historical adherence …. for having well returned the Calabrian culture, between anger and “fantasy”, between sound landscapes and visions “.
At the end of the evening, the organizers’ leave was a “goodbye”: you will immediately start working at the next edition.