AND’ Benedetta Tobagi with La Resistance of the Donne (Einaudi) the winner of the 61st edition of the Campiello Prize with 90 votes. He is in second place, ten points behind Silvia Ballestra with La Sibilla. Life of Joyce Lussu (Laterza). third place Martha Cai with Centomilioni (Einaudi, votes 57), fourth Tommaso Pincio (Diary of a Martian Summer, Giulio Perrone Editore, 46 votes), fifth Philip Tuena (Searching for Pan, at Night), which only received 13 votes.
Grand finale around Phoenix of Venice for the final of the Campiello Prize. This is a varied fivesome Edition number 61, in which books with a historical background, important figures in our cultural history, moments of transition in democratic history, looks at the myth were presented: “I was overwhelmed by this book – said Tobagi emotionally – I would like to dedicate this award to the memory of this one extraordinary women who didn’t look away. I dedicate it to all women who resist in every context.”
This is how it works in the evening the authors told the audience Your books are available and connected on Rai 5.
Benedetta Tobagi (Women’s resistance, Einaudi) spoke about the women who contributed to the liberation struggle: “In an Italy that considered women inferior, in a patriarchal society like the fascist one, women could enjoy the superpower of invisibility. Topos that are useful to avoid being discovered in their fight. Tobagi started with a few photos, including that of Gina Negrini, who unfortunately fell into a toxic relationship after the war but later found the strength to tell her story.
Tommaso Pincio (Diary of a Martian Summer, Giulio Perrone), who in the book traces a Rome, beautiful and indifferent, the 20th century of magazines, cafés, the Via Veneto and the brilliant Ennio Flaiano. “I love Flaiano, more than I love him as a writer, I love him as a person. I thought about writing this book when I didn’t particularly like Rome. I was stuck abroad for six months during the pandemic, and when I came back I had changed and was struggling to re-acclimate. Flaiano also felt he was in trouble with Rome. Then a few notes on his artistic history: “I was not born a writer, but studied art and scenography.”
Marta Cai (Centomilioni, Einaudi): “I wanted to tell a story of loneliness in which desires and illusions germinate.” Then something about the genesis of the book: “I started writing it at a time when I knew that I was facing a very big change in my life Life would stand.”
Filippo Tuena (Looking for Pan, at night) tells of a cruise that crosses the Aegean Sea in the footsteps of the god Pan, crossing the past and the future. Book with prose, pictures, drawings. The author: “It is a book that talks about the mythology that is known to us in fragments, so I was interested in working on this material. The fragment allows the author and the reader to work with the imagination.” On mythology: “It has always fascinated me; ancient Greece is an inexhaustible source for me.”
Silvia Ballestra (The Sibyl. Life of Joyce Lussu, Laterza): Book dedicated to Joyce Lussu, a partisan and poet who met Ballestra personally and who preserves her memories: “I felt the need to write Joyce’s life because her story is beautiful and I wanted to share it, take up her legacy and wanted to make it known.” readers. Traditionally, the Apennine Sibyl was the one who wove the threads of the present, the past and the future. Like Joyce.
It was an edition without editorial balancing acts: they reached the final three independent publishers of five. The other two spots went to Einaudi, the only large group present. Another note: two of the finalists, Pincio and Ballestra, were also candidates for the Strega Prize. Ballestra reached the top five.
The Publishing elite In the audience were: Stefano Mauri (President and CEO of the Mauri Spagnol Group), Giuseppe Laterza, Elisabetta Sgarbi (Editor of La nave di Teseo), Enrico Selva Coddè (Vice President and CEO of Mondadori Libri), Antonio Sellerio, Walter Barberis (President Einaudi). And then Emanuela Bassetti (Vice President Marsilio), Giulio Perrone, Andrea Gessner (Night President).
The awards ceremony, organized by the Il Campiello Foundation – Confindustria Veneto – was chaired by Francesca Fialdini, along with Lodo Guenzi of the welfare state. During the evening, the winners of the other awards also received the prize: Emiliano Moreale who won the Campiello Opera Prima, the lifetime achievement award given to him this year, with The Last Innocence (Sellerio). Edith Bruck, “a poet, a writer, a witness”. Bruck, 92 years old, was greeted with a very long applause: “I was so calm, now you have touched me very much, thank you.” Then thanks: first to Elisabetta Sgarbi, his publisher, and a promise: “My career does not end here , I will continue for a long time.” In the jury’s statement, “the exemplary character of his existential and artistic parable” was emphasized.
There was also the special mention ad Ada d’Adamo and to his Come d’aria, already winner of the Premio Strega. An award received by the publisher of Elliott Publishing Loretta Santini. For Ada d’Adamo, who died on April 1st without being able to witness the Strega victory, it is a recognition that contributes to the sales success.
For the Campiello Giovani was rewarded Elisabetta Fontana for the story Under the Skin.
Chaired the de Campiello jury Walter Veltroni, who praised “the diversity of the finalist books” and the composition of a review group made up of “independent, competent and reputable” people. The literary jury that selected the books consists of Pierluigi Battista, Federico Bertoni, Daniela Brogi, Silvia Calandrelli, Edoardo Camurri, Chiara Fenoglio, Daria Galateria, Lorenzo Tomasin, Roberto Vecchioni and Emanuele Zinato
To determine the winner 300 jurors who voted anonymously online.