In New York everything is ready for today’s closing ceremony of the first edition of the SuperBook Prize, promoted by the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, directed by Claudio Pagliara, and supported by the Center for Books and Reading. The day will open with a meeting entitled “Out of Italy: Recent Trends in Italian Literature and the Publication and Promotion of Italian Authors in the US”: a wide-ranging discussion with American publishers, writers and translators on the strategies necessary to increase knowledge, translation and diffusion of Italian literature in the United States. The proceedings will be opened by institutional greetings from the Consul General of Italy in New York, Giuseppe Pastorelli, and the director of the Pagliara Institute.
Participating in the meeting will be Giuseppe Iannaccone and Luciano Lanna, respectively president and director of the Center for Books and Reading of the Ministry of Culture. With them, also the president of the Italian Publishers Association (AIE) Innocenzo Cipolletta. Also taking part in the debate will be Michael Reynolds, Executive Publisher of Europa Editions, and Katie Raissian, Executive Editor of Scribner, two US publishing houses at the forefront of bringing Italian literature to the attention of the American public. The discussion will address the most recent trends in Italian fiction, the criteria that guide the choices of US publishers and the tools necessary for an Italian author to successfully reach the American market.
The day will continue at 6pm with the final ceremony of the first edition of the SuperBook Prize, created to identify, among the winning works of the main Italian literary prizes, the book with the greatest potential to win over American readers. The two finalist writers are Anna Mallamo from Reggio, journalist of the Gazzetta, author of “Col dark me la vedo io” (Einaudi, 2025), winner of the SuperMondello Prize, and Wanda Marasco, author of “Di shoulders to this world” (Neri Pozza, 2025), winner of the Campiello Prize. The name of the winner will be announced by Maestro Daniele Rustioni, recently appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and president of the SuperBook jury.