Everything is ready for the final ceremony of the Elio Vittorini National Literary Award. Simona Lo Iacono with «Virdimura» (Guanda), Chiara Mezzalama with «Le nostre perdute foresta» (Edizioni e/o) and Alberto Riva with «Ultima estate a Roccamare» (Neri Pozza) are the three finalists of the Prize dedicated to the Syracusan writer, now in its twenty-third edition. Final evening Saturday 7th September, from 8pm, at the Teatro Massimo Città di Siracusawhich will be preceded by the Settimana Vittoriniana that will begin on Wednesday 4th in the “Elio Vittorini” library museum with «Conversation in… Ortigia», a multi-voiced comparison on «Hybridism and literature. Vittorini between dialect and language».
Thursday 5th at 6pm at the Urban Center the appointment with the “Vittorini Trial” returns which this year will have as its charge “Playing the fife for the revolution?: Vittorini against Togliatti”, which will bring the prosecution and the defense to confront each other on one of the most heated controversies that bounced between 1946 and 1947 between the pages of Rinascita and those of the Politecnico.
Friday 6th September, again at the Urban Center at 6pm, space for interviews with the three finalist authors. On that same occasion, a plaque will also be unveiled in the outdoor spaces of the Urban Center with which the City will remember Livia Gagliano, a passionate bookseller from Ortigia, who died prematurely just under a year ago. Then at the Massimo Theater, at 9 p.m., the company of the Napoli brothers will present the show of the puppet opera «Astratti furori siciliani», taken from «Conversazione in Sicilia».
During the final evening, the Arnaldo Lombardi Independent Publishing Award will also be presented to the publishing house Lussografica of Caltanissetta, a historic reality in the publishing panorama not only in Sicily. An Active Citizenship award will be assigned: for 2024, the actress from Syracuse Carmelinda Gentile has been chosen, a face also known for her performance in the series «Il commissario Montalbano» (she is Beba, wife of Mimì Augello), involved in a civic commitment project that combines a passion for theater with support for those fighting cancer.
“We have worked with commitment and dedication to put together a structured program that offers different points of observation on Vittorini, always keeping the book at the center – commented the Councilor for Culture of Syracuse Fabio Granata and the president of the cultural association Vittorini-Quasimodo Enzo Papa -. The high quality of the works in competition represents a confirmation that the path taken is the right one to allow the Vittorini Prize to increasingly consolidate its position in the national panorama”.
The Vittorini Award is promoted by the cultural association Vittorini – Quasimodo with the Department of Culture of Syracuse, in collaboration with the Inda Foundation, the Free Municipal Consortium of Syracuse and with the patronage of the regional department of Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity.