It's countdown to the appointment with the first national stage of the Strega Prize which will be held on Saturday 20th at 11.30 am in the De Carlo Auditorium of Disum, in the former Benedictine Monastery in Catania. The twelve semi-finalist authors of the Strega Prize will participate in the free initiative organized by the Catania Book Festival, supported by the University of Catania, the Sicilian Region and the Balena Bianca consultancy firm.
This year too, the first stage of the tour which will visit other Italian cities will be presented by two young authors from Catania who are already respected by the public and critics: Mattia Insolia and Lorena Spampinato.
«We have already registered the seats sold out and there is an air of great anticipation. With the staff we have never stopped in these days to organize the event which we imagine as a celebration of stories, reading and culture in general – says the creator and director of the festival, Simone Dei Pieri – Bringing the most authoritative Italian literary prize, which tells the trends and tastes of readers, to Catania for the second time in twelve months is a great responsibility for us. Opening the tour that will then touch the whole of Italy is clearly a source of pride, and we are happy to have created this opportunity for lovers of books and reading. The University of Catania and the Federico II Foundation – Sicilian Region are supporting this event which brings Sicily back to the center of the national and European cultural panorama. Sicily has the possibility of returning to being, as has often happened throughout history, – concludes Dei Pieri – an outpost towards new cultures and a port for the stories that meet. I believe that Catania can in all respects be at the center of this virtuous path.”
The twelve semi-finalist authors of the Strega Prize will participate in the free initiative organized by the Catania Book Festival, supported by the University of Catania, the Sicilian Region and the Balena Bianca consultancy firm:
1) Sonia Aggio, In the emperor's room (Fazi);
2) Adrián N. Bravi, Adelaida (Nutritions);
3) Paolo Di Paolo, Novel without humans (Feltrinelli);
4) Donatella Di Pietrantonio, The fragile age (Einaudi);
5) Tommaso Giartosio, Autobiogrammatica (minimum fax);
6) Antonella Lattanzi, Things that are not told (Einaudi);
7) Valentina Mira, On the same side you will find me (SEM);
8) Melissa Panarello from Catania, History of my money (Bompiani);
9) Daniele Rielli, The invisible fire. Human history of a natural disaster (Rizzoli);
10) Raffaella Romagnolo, Fixing the universe (Mondadori);
11) Chiara Valerio, Who says and who is silent (Sellerio);
12) Dario Voltolini, Invernale (The Ship of Theseus).