In Pordenonelegge 2021, from 15 to 19 September, books as a compass to read the world: from the Nobel Prize Kazuo Ishiguro to the Prix Gouncourt Hervé Le Tellier, from the Spanish writer Fernando Aramburu, FriulAdria Prize ‘History in a novel’, to the novelties of Peter Cameron (“Leap year”), Kevin Davies (“Rewriting humanity”), Nadia Wassef (“The Cairo bookseller”), Alessandro Piperno (“Whose fault is it”).
400 protagonists, over 200 meetings, 10 cities involved, 5 days and the PNlegge TV to follow with 30 direct – 6 a day – the whole festival, minute by minute, from any latitude, the full immersion with the great voices of Italian literature and international.
The 22nd edition of the Book Festival opens on Wednesday 15 September in 3 cities: Pordenone, Trieste, Lignano. The Pordenone event is organized in synergy with Rai Radio3, curated by Edoardo Camurri and Pietro Del Soldà from “All of humanity speaks about it”. And the red thread of the “impossible interviews” will be a common element at the appointments in Trieste and Lignano, curated by Pordenonelegge, where characters and literary figures from the ancient world will come to life who, from the sea, will bring a new look, ideas and suggestions to design the horizon of our time. Promoted as always by the Pordenonelegge Foundation, the festival is curated by Gian Mario Villalta (Artistic Director), Alberto Garlini and Valentina Gasparet.
Among the other foreign authors guests of the festival: the British revelation Graeme Armstrong, the Egyptian Nadia Wassef, the Russian Evgenij Vodolazkin, the Dutch – Iranian author Kader Abdolah, the writer and artist Brian Catling, the author and performer Natalie Haynes. And among the Italian authors Emanuele Trevi, Melania Mazzucco, Mauro Covacich, Daria Bignardi, Giuseppe Culicchia, Michele Serra, Lidia Ravera, Ilaria Tuti.
Then there are the dialogues as a guide to the plots of Pordenonelegge: Walter Siti and Edoardo Albinati converse on the “salt” of literature: ambivalence, doubt, contradiction; Paolo Nori and Serena Vitale debate between Dostoevskij and Mandel’ŝtam, Eva Cantarella and Nicola Gardini talk about Greek literature, Mauro Corona and his daughter Marianna Corona about life and the mountains, Silvia Avallone, Carmen Totaro and Paolo Giordano talk about personal relationships and their complicated implications, Pif and Marco Lillo on mafia tragedies, Claudio Piersanti and Filippo La Porta on the value of literature, Paolo Cognetti, Giuseppe Mendicino and Enrico Brizzi recall Mario Rigoni Stern man and writer, Stefania Auci and Romana Petri dwell on the family novel, Marco Balzano and Mario Desiati on difficult lives and marked destinies, Mariapia Veladiano and Francesca Mannocchi on human frailty, Antonella Sbuelz and Tullio Avoledo bring us two “ethical” stories with a perfect narrative interlocking, Vittorio Macioce and Eleonora Molisani speak of contemporary love, Matteo Codignola and Francesco Recami discuss literature and humor, Pietro Ichino and Alessandro Ba rtezzaghi on puzzles, Telmo Pievani and Mauro Varotto propose an interesting experiment in environmental dystopia, Andrea Segrè and Ilaria Pertot slide into the future with an unpublished book written together with the readers.
Pordenonelegge explores current events between economics, science, philosophy, art and entertainment: Federico Rampini, Massimo Recalcati, Toni Capuozzo, Gennaro Sangiuliano, Gustavo Zagrebelsky, Luca Palamara, Alessandro Sallusti, Elena Cattaneo, Antonella Viola, Vittorino Andreoli, Oscar Farinetti, Antonio Caprarica, Marino Niola, Elisabetta Moro, Eliana Liotta, Pier Luigi Rossi, Mauro Magatti, Maurizio Ferraris, Luigi Zoja, Pier Aldo Rovatti, Flavio Caroli, Milo Manara, Zerocalcare, Tullio Pericoli, Giuliano Sangiorgi, Ricky Tognazzi, Giacomo Poretti, Davide Toffolo , Marco Baliani, Massimiliano Ossini and the former footballer Lilian Thuram who presents his new book related to racism as a preview.
In collaboration with Fuis (Italian Federation of Writers) pordenonelegge opens a path on the Italian story of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: two in-depth studies will be dedicated to Verga and Pirandello, Fogazzaro and Percoto, with Gabriele Pedullà and Paolo Di Paolo, further meeting with the poets Matteo Marchesini and Massimo Gezzi on their new book of short stories.
In 2021, poetry is the real festival within the festival: over 100 protagonists, the return of the Libreria della Poesia with over 3 thousand titles and two dedicated series: pordenonelegge confirms itself as the publisher of “Gialla” and “Gialla oro” with the new collaboration of Samuele editore and 6 new publications. An original production based on an unpublished text by Alberto Casadei celebrates Dante’s 700 years and proposes a further “impossible” conversation at the festival, this time with the Supreme Alighieri. And yet the centenary of the birth of Andrea Zanzotto, the homage to the poet Mario Benedetti – one of the first victims of the pandemic in March 2020 – the further dedication to the poet Pierluigi Cappello with the award named after him and the announcement of the second edition of Umberto Saba Award. It is a national showcase that brings the most representative voices of Italian poetry to the festival.
And with Pordenonelegge junior you go back to school: the festival alongside young people, to ring the first bells of the new school year.