History and the female universe are the main themes of the 21st edition of the Pisa Book Festival, the national exhibition of independent publishing organised by the Pisa Book Festival association, with the patronage and contribution of the Municipality of Pisa, the Region of Tuscany, the Pisa Foundation, Acque Spa and the Chamber of Commerce of North-West Tuscany.
For four days, from Thursday 28 September to Sunday 1 October, the Pisa Book Festival presents itself to the public as a cultural event that combines the promotion of books, a place of the soul, with that of museums and historical complexes, places of art, identity and historical memory.
The Arsenali Repubblicani di Pisa will be the fair's headquarters, with over 90 independent publishers as exhibitors and event promoters, while the halls of the adjacent Fortilizio della Cittadella and the nearby Museo delle Navi Antiche di Pisa and Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale will host over 200 meetings: book presentations, dialogues with authors, translation masterclasses, writing workshops, seminars and small conferences.
Admission is free and free of charge; the full programme is available at www.pisabookfestival.it.
PROGRAMME
The event will open on Thursday 28 September at 4 p.m., in the Arsenali Repubblicani, with the classic ribbon-cutting ceremony: together with Lucia Della Porta, director of the Pisa Book Festival, there will be Michele Conti, mayor of Pisa, Filippo Bedini, councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Pisa, Stefano Del Corso, president of the Fondazione Pisa, Andrea Camilli, director of the Museo delle Navi Antiche, Pierluigi Nieri, director of the Museo di Palazzo Reale.
Then, at 5 p.m., the event will begin with the opening speech on 'Pisa and the Medici' by Eugenio Giani, President of the Region of Tuscany, and the lectio magistralis by Lina Bolzoni, patroness of the 21st edition of the Festival, on the Art of Memory.
Among the novelties of this edition is the preview on 27 September with "La Toscana delle donne" (The Tuscany of Women), the first stage of the "Animae Loci" review curated by the Nottola di Minerva, which includes a meeting with the writers Lorenza Pieri and Evelina Santangelo.
Among the numerous female guests, the poet Vivian Lamarque with her latest collection "L'amore da vecchia" (Mondadori) and Michela Marzano make their entrance at the Pisa Book Festival (Saturday 30 September at 12 noon), and the very Tuscan Chiara Francini returns with her "Forte e Chiara" (Rizzoli), an enthralling autobiographical confession that she will present in dialogue with Sebastiano Mondadori, Saturday at 6 pm.
In collaboration with the Region of Tuscany, Friday 29 September in the Fortilizio della Cittadella, there will be a space for meetings to discover the world of publishing and its professions, through meetings with literary agents, editors, translators and publishing start-ups.
On the same day, at 6 pm, the Award Ceremony of the third edition of the Pisa Book Translation Awards will be held with the three finalist translators, Eleonora Ottaviani (Del Vecchio Editore), Antonella Conti (Fazi Editore) and Fabio Cremonesi (NN Editore). The Renata Colorni Career Prize, the Poetry Prize and the Independent Publisher Special Mention will also be awarded.
In the cycle of the Homages to the greats of literature, this year the Festival will commemorate Alessandro Manzoni on Saturday 30 at 10.30 a.m. with Eleonora Mazzoni, author of the book "Il cuore è un guazzabuglio" (Einaudi); and José Saramago on Saturday 30 (12 noon) with Roberto Francavilla, editor of the Italian edition of "I suoi nomi," a passionate biography of the Portuguese Nobel Prize winner (Feltrinelli).
The 21st edition of the Pisa Book Festival marks the debut of the cycle History Lessons, hosted in the Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale: Friday 29 (6 pm) will open with Carmine Pinto with "Curtatone e Montanara, combattere e morire nel Risorgimento"; Saturday 30 (6 pm) David Salomoni will accompany the public in the sea voyage of Francis Drake, a privateer at the edge of the world, Sunday 1 October (4 pm) will conclude the cycle Arnaldo Marcone recalling the last days of the Roman Empire.
Between history and current events, the gaze of the Pisa Book Festival embraces the world. Dedicated to Iran are two meetings, the first of which, curated by Brioschi Editore, will include the presentation of the volumes, "L'ultimo gioco di Banu" by Belgheis Soleymani and "L'Iran contemporaneo", with Faezeh Mardani, translator and lecturer in Persian literature, and Carlo G. Cereti, lecturer in the History of Iran; the second is scheduled for 1 October with the author Rassa Ghaffari in dialogue with Francesca Caferri and Renata Pepicelli.
A perspective on Ukraine is scheduled with the special In memory of Viktorija Amelina: speakers will be Giulia Lami, author of 'Ukraine in 100 dates' (Della Porta Editori) and Yaryna Grusha author of 'Dimensione Kyiv' (BUR). Slavist Massimo Tria will moderate.
L'Italia: un paese dal futuro (in)sostenibile? (Italy: a country with an (in)sustainable future?) is the title of the event curated by Città Nuova with the presentation of the books "Sette vite come i gatti, storie di economie circolari" (Seven lives like cats, stories of circular economies) and "Vola Italia, ridare le ali a un paese insostenibile" (Fly Italy, giving wings back to an unsustainable country): environmental journalist Letizia Palmisano and diplomat and writer Grammenos Mastrojeni will be present.
Italian mysteries and chronicle cases, noir and detective stories, as always, will not be lacking at the Pisa Book Festival. It starts on Friday 29 September with "La suprema inchiesta" (Il Saggiatore), by Alberto Casadei; the next day, Saturday 30 September, Mimesis Edizioni will tackle the story of the Monster of Florence: the sequence of crimes and the Sardinian trail with author Roberto Taddeo. Sunday closes in the sign of thriller with three special events: "the return of the lawyer Gordiano" with the new legal thriller by Michele Navarra, "Il Peso del coraggio"(Fazi), two commissioners investigate, with Marco Vichi and Giovanni Carbone, who present the latest cases of commissioners Bordelli (Guanda Noir) and Luigi Capuana (Effigi); and finally, the ladies of the detective story, Gabriella Genisi and Patrizia Rinaldi will talk about their books "L'angelo di Castelforte" and "Guaio dinotte" (Rizzoli Noir).
As per tradition, there will be no lack of events dedicated to writers and regional literature: the Made in Tuscany column has been confirmed, dedicated to Tuscan poets and writers, curated by Vanni Santoni, who will dialogue with the writer Lorenza Gentile and the poetesses Elisa Biagini and Francesca Matteoni; 'Regional editions and the link with the territory' will be discussed with Bernard Biancarelli and Mario Papalini, publisher of Effigi, in the event organised by Éditions Albiana.
