Friday 7th June from 10 to 13, the Palazzo dei Congressi reopens its doors to friends of the Pisa Book Festival and to all reading enthusiasts for a first taste of the seventeenth edition of the independent publishing fair, scheduled from Thursday 7 to Sunday 11 November 2019. The first big news of this year's preview, which will see the participation of city school students and the presence of the curators of the PBF sections, is the double location: morning at the Palazzo dei Congressi and afternoon, from 5 pm, to Palazzo Blu for the lectio magistralis by Marcello Verga.

 

There are two, for lovers of books and the Pisa Book Festival, the events not to be missed on Friday morning at the Palazzo dei Congressi. From 10 to 11, the great protagonist will be the #LeggereaScuola project, one of the spearheads of the PBF that for years has been promoting reading among the younger generations and involving students who, in the three days of the event, present selected texts and authors to the public. And precisely on the occasion of the preview the boys will be given the 'reading tips' for the summer: a parterre of authors and titles of independent publishers to read and meditate to prepare for the big autumn event with the PBF, when the students themselves will become 'critics' and presenters.

 

The other big news of the open doors of 7 June will be the first screening of the results of the survey, launched on the PBF's social media channels, to create a 'Library of Europe'. Anyone through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can take part in the survey by indicating three of their favorite European authors. To vote, all you need is a QR code reading app: the instructions are on the PBF social pages.

 

The open doors on Friday 7 June will also be an opportunity for all university students to receive information and guidance on how to do an internship at the Pisa Book Festival.

 

At 11 it will be the turn of the magic of the word. Lucia Della Porta, artistic director of the PBF, and the writers Vanni Santoni, Luca Ricci and Sebastiano Mondadori will present some of the innovations scheduled for the autumn review. Between returns and debuts will return the Made in Tuscany column, dedicated to Tuscan writers, coordinated by Vanni Santoni, writer and journalist, candidate for the Strega award in 2017, now in the bookstore with I fratelli Michelangelo (Mondadori). Great expectation for Luca Ricci, one of the writers of the moment with his latest book Trascurato Milano (The Nave by Teseo), and his column In search of the lost canon, dedicated to literary criticism. The appointment on Friday will not miss Sebastiano Mondadori, founder of the Barbabooth creative writing school and curator from 2013 for the Pisa Book Festival of Creative Writing Masterclasses. The meetings of the Republic Café will also be back, organized by the journalists of the Editors of Florence.

 

Europe will be the leitmotif of the preview on Friday and beyond. Because at 5 pm, at Palazzo Blu, Marcello Verga, professor of Modern History at the Faculty of Political Science 'Cesare Alfieri' in Florence, will hold a lectio magistralis on 'Europe: celebrating the past to build the future'. From 2015 to 2019, director of the Institute of Mediterranean History of the Cnr, Verga was a student and then a researcher at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa and then an associate professor at the University of Pisa. Member of the panel of experts of the European Cultural Heritage of the European Union Commission, Professor Verga at Palazzo Blu will reconstruct the most significant moments of the process of economic and political integration of the States until the opening of the House of European History, which took place in 2017 , in Brussels, and the recent launch of the European Heritage Label program.

 

Participation in the day is free and open to all. Partners of the Pisa Book Festival are the Pisa Foundation, the Tuscany Region, the Municipality of Pisa, the Palazzo Blu Foundation, the Chamber of Commerce of Pisa.

 

The program of the day:

At the Palazzo dei Congressi

 

10 am: registration of the classes participating in the project #LeggereaScuola; survey for the choice of the most representative writers of European culture and choice of books to read in the summer

 

10.30 am: registration and orientation of university students interested in doing an internship at the Festival

 

11am: the magic of the word. The curators present the programming for the 17th edition

 

At Palazzo Blu

 

5pm: lectio magistralis by Marcello Verga (University of Florence): Europe: celebrating the past to build the future