2023-06-07 20:37:55
An almost all-female Cinquina for the 2023 Strega Prize, with an author who starts out as the favourite: Rosella Postorino, competing with “I limit myself to loving you” (Feltrinelli), presented by Nicola Lagioia, with 217 votes and success conquered five years ago with the novel “The Tasters” with which he won the Campiello and seven other prizes and translations into about thirty languages. In second place Ada D’Adamo with “Come d’aria” (Elliot), presented by Elena Stancanelli, with 199 votes, a book that can already boast the conquest of the Premio Strega Giovani, which was the most voted by a jury of young people between 16 and 18 years of 91 secondary schools in Italy and abroad: the author died last April 1st at the age of 55, immediately after having learned that she was among the dozen finalists, but as per the regulation, the work remained in the competition. Lo Strega already boasts two precedents in this sense and both lucky because they were posthumous winners: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa with “The Leopard” in 1959 and Maria Teresa Di Leaves with “Passage in the shade” in 1995.
The fifth of the LXXVII edition is completed with Maria Grazia Calandrone with “Where you didn’t bring me” (Einaudi), with 183 votes, presented by Franco Buffoni; Andrea Canobbio with “The night crossing” (The ship of Theseus), with 175 votes, presented by Elisabetta Rasy; Romana Petri with “Stealing the night” (Mondadori), presented by Teresa Ciabatti, with 167 votes.
The proclamation took place this evening at the Roman Theater in Benevento, during an event hosted by Stefano Coletta, who interviewed the twelve candidates in live streaming on RaiPlay and followed the counting of the votes. Mario Desiati, president of the polling station and winner of the previous edition, proclaimed the five finalists.
The election of the winning book will take place on Thursday 6 July at the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome and will be broadcast live on Rai Tre television, conducted by Geppi Cucciari.
596 out of 660 voters (equal to 90.3% of those eligible) expressed their preferences, including individual votes and collective votes: as usual, 220 votes cast by scholars, translators and intellectuals were added to those of the 400 Amici della Domenica Italians and foreigners selected by over 30 Italian cultural institutes abroad, 20 strong readers and 20 collective votes expressed by schools, universities and reading groups, including the circles set up at the Rome libraries.
These are the votes obtained by the other books in the competition: Igiaba Scego, “Cassandra a Mogadishu” (Bompiani), 158 votes; Silvia Ballestra, “The Sibyl. Life of Joyce Lussu” (Laterza), 145 votes; Andrea Tarabbia, “The White Continent” (Bollati Boringhieri) 136 votes; Gian Marco Griffi, “Mexico Railways” (Laurana Editore), 135 votes; Maddalena Vaglio Tanet, “Returning from the woods” (Marsilio), 117 votes; Carmen Verde, “A minimal unhappiness” (Neri Pozza), 89 votes; Vincenzo Latronico, “The perfections” (Bompiani), 67 votes.
The fifth of the LXXVII edition will meet the public in 16 stages throughout Italy, one of which as always abroad at an Italian Cultural Institute, on 20 June in Berlin. The stages of the Strega Tour, in Naples, Benevento, Florence, Modena, Salò, Parma and Rimini will be followed by the ‘Ticket to Read’ camper, which will create a new podcast series curated by Margherita Schirmacher and Enrico Orlandi to tell the journey of the finalists, in collaboration with Chausson Italia.
The Benevento evening was organized by the City of Benevento with the Maria and Goffredo Bellonci Foundation and Liquore Strega, which promote the Award with the contribution of Roma Capitale, the Rome Chamber of Commerce, in collaboration with Bper Banca and Tirreno Power, Rai media partner , technical sponsors IBS.it and Sygla.
(by Paolo Martini)
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