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“What a strange impression that world has.” Or, otherwise, the ability of literature to open windows onto universes of sense and meaning, becoming a privileged tool for reading the general and the particular, the territories and the cultural transformations that run through them. The first edition of Oppido Mamertina’s «Palazzaccio» Prize, on Sunday in Piazza Marino Zuco, attempted to investigate the world of writing from this particular point of view.
The cultural initiative conceived and curated by the Circolo dei Lettori Nostos, saw nine writers at the center of the activities, all Calabrian or “almost”, who became references for writing and reading in a historical period of great reflections and debates on the role of literature. The evening, presented by journalists Arcangelo Badolati and Ramona Barbaro, was animated by Professor Antonio Roselli, creator and secretary of the award, Mayor Giuseppe Morizzi, Professor Maria Surace, member of the scientific committee, Professor Enzo Zindato, member of the organizing committee.
The authors protagonists of the first edition of «Palazzaccio» are of enormous importance:
Marta Lamalfa, with «The island where females fly» (Neri Pozza, 2024);
Mimmo Gangemi with «To me the glory» (Solferino, 2025);
Marina Valensise with «A Greek heart. The return to the classics of the twentieth century” (Neri Pozza, 2025);
Aldo Nove with «Inabissarsi» (II Saggiatore, 2025);
Anna Mallamo with «In the dark I see it» (Einaudi, 2025);
Enzo Ciconte with «History of the other Italy» (Laterza, 2026);
Gioacchino Criaco with «Dove canta il cuckoo» (Piemme, 2026);
Santo Gioffrè with «Il tempo del male» (Castelvecchi, 2026);
Daniele Pronestì with «The reasons for instinct» (Bompiani, 2025).
Excerpts from their books were read – with great intensity – by Lilly Sgrò and Giovanni Parrello. All of them were given a work created by master Rocco Epifanio.
«A starting point – it was explained – which is not only the relationship between book and place, but the possibility that a territory becomes an interpretative category, a space through which to question history, memory and collective identity». And everything in the «Palazzaccio» Award seems to talk about territory. The name itself recalls the Palazzo Grillo of Oppido Mamertina, a place deeply rooted in the historical memory and imagination of the community through the reference to the novel “Il Previtocciolo” by Don Luca Asprea, pseudonym of Carmine Ragno (Feltrinelli, 1971): from its pages an intense performance by the actress Mara Scarcella opened the evening.
Furthermore, the Award takes on a strong symbolic value: a place marked by time becomes a space for narration, recovery of memory and cultural regeneration. «There is an image that proved decisive for us – underlined Professor Roselli –. It is that of the children who, in Previtocciolo, enter the building. They do not yet have the tools of the historian, the scholar, the archaeologist. They have something more original: curiosity. Every book, in this sense, is a door and reading means crossing it without knowing exactly where it will lead us.”
For the authors who spoke, the future of Calabrian literature can only look to a change in the narrative of Calabria. A land of beauty, light and opportunity, beyond the negative curtain that has acted as a brake over time. From this point of view, as explained by Anna Mallamo, the Palazzaccio becomes a metaphor for the work to be done. An ancient place destined for ruin that slowly comes back to life and becomes a symbol of a destiny that does not surrender to events, but shakes itself and rewrites itself.
During the evening there was no shortage of music, entrusted to the Nostos Ensemble, directed by maestro Vincenzo Zindato, with the extraordinary voice of Titti Mileto. The moment dedicated to the special prizes, the journalistic activity of Arcangelo Badolati and the editorial activity of Remo Barbaro of DBE publisher of Oppido Mamertina is significant. The Award was held under the auspices of the Center for Books and Reading. With the moral patronage of the Regional Council of Calabria, of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria, of Anci Calabria, of the Municipality of Oppido Mamertina.