Honoring the Strega Prize (Il Premio Strega), Italy’s most prestigious literary award, Yale University is bringing three recent winners and several celebrated critics to campus for a weekend of celebration, October 3-4.
Now in its 57th year, the Prize, administered by the Maria e Goffredo Bellonci Foundation, goes to a novel written by an Italian author, published between May 1 of the previous year and April 30 of the current year. The Strega Prize counts among its winners Cesare Pavese, Natalia Ginzburg, Primo Levi and Umberto Eco.
October 3 will feature readings by Strega Prize winners Enzo Siciliano (1998), Domenico Starnone (2001) and Melania Mazzucco (2003), with poet John Hollander serving as host. The reading in Italian and English, is free and open to the public and will take place 4 p.m. at the Beinecke Library, 121 Wall Street.
On Saturday, October 4, a panel of speakers will address the theme of the symposium: “The Twilight Zone: Contemporary Italian Narrative between Prose, Poetry and Art.” Featured guests include Arnaldo Colasanti, Enzo Siciliano and Raffaella Morselli. Paolo Valesio, professor of Italian at Yale and editor of Yale Italian Poetry, will act as moderator for the discussion. This event takes place 10 a.m. at the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street. The symposium requires pre-registration. To register, contact: yip2@pantheon.yale.edu
The Strega Prize winner is announced at the beginning of July in a ceremony traditionally held in the garden of the Villa Giulia in Rome.
Free and open to the public, the weekend events are sponsored by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Whitney Humanities Center, the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Yale Italian Department and Yale Italian Poetry (YIP). For more information, contact Timothy Young at 203-432-8131 or timothy.young@yale.edu
