Strega Prize
Encyclopedia
The Strega Prize is the most prestigious Italian literary award
. It has been awarded annually since 1947 for the best work of prose fiction by an Italian author and first published between 1 May of the previous year and 30 April. Winners have included
Cesare Pavese
(1950),
Alberto Moravia
(1952),
Giorgio Bassani
(1956),
Elsa Morante
(1957),
Dino Buzzati
(1958),
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
(1959),
Natalia Ginzburg
(1963),
Tommaso Landolfi
(1975),
Primo Levi
(1979),
Umberto Eco
(1981),
Gesualdo Bufalino
(1988) and
Claudio Magris
(1997).
at their home in Rome. These Sunday gatherings of writers, artists and intellectuals grew to include many of the most notable figures of Italian cultural life. The group became known as the Amici della Domenica, or ‘Sunday Friends’. In 1947 the Belloncis, together with Guido Alberti, owner of the firm which produces the Strega liqueur, decided to inaugurate a prize for fiction, the winner being chosen by the Sunday friends.
The activities of the Bellonci circle and the institution of the prize were seen as marking a tentative return to ‘normality’ in Italian cultural life: a feature of the reconstruction which followed the years of Fascism, war, occupation and liberation. The first winner of the Strega, elected by the Sunday Friends, was Ennio Flaiano
, for his first and only novel Tempo di uccidere, which is set in Africa during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War
. It has been translated into English as The Short Cut.
The members of the now 400-strong prize jury, drawn from Italy’s cultural elite, are still known as the Sunday Friends. For a book to be considered it must have the support of at least two Friends. This initial long list is whittled down at a first ballot to a short list of five. The second round of voting, followed by the proclamation of the victor, takes place on the first Thursday in July in the nymphaeum
of the Villa Giulia
, Rome.
, a document which was drawn up and approved during 1946, the year of the Strega’s birth. The award was received by ex-President of the Italian Republic
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
.
Literary award
A literary award is an award presented to an author who has written a particularly lauded piece or body of work. There are awards for forms of writing ranging from poetry to novels. Many awards are also dedicated to a certain genre of fiction or non-fiction writing . There are also awards...
. It has been awarded annually since 1947 for the best work of prose fiction by an Italian author and first published between 1 May of the previous year and 30 April. Winners have included
Cesare Pavese
Cesare Pavese
Cesare Pavese was an Italian poet, novelist, literary critic and translator; he is widely considered among the major authors of the 20th century in his home country.- Early life and education :...
(1950),
Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism....
(1952),
Giorgio Bassani
Giorgio Bassani
Giorgio Bassani was an Italian novelist, poet, essayist, editor, and international intellectual.-Biography:Bassani was born in Bologna into a prosperous Jewish family of Ferrara, where he spent his childhood with his mother Dora, father Enrico , brother Paolo, and sister Jenny...
(1956),
Elsa Morante
Elsa Morante
Elsa Morante was an Italian novelist, perhaps best known for her novel La storia .-Biography:...
(1957),
Dino Buzzati
Dino Buzzati
Dino Buzzati-Traverso was an Italian novelist, short story writer, painter and poet, as well as a journalist for Corriere della Sera. His worldwide fame is mostly due to his novel Il deserto dei Tartari, translated into English as The Tartar Steppe.-Life:Buzzati was born at San Pellegrino,...
(1958),
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa , was a Sicilian writer. He is most famous for his only novel, Il Gattopardo which is set in Sicily during the Risorgimento...
(1959),
Natalia Ginzburg
Natalia Ginzburg
Natalia Ginzburg née Levi was an award-winning Italian author whose work explored family relationships, politics during and after the Fascist years and World War II, and philosophy. She wrote novels, short stories and essays, for which she received the Strega Prize and Bagutta Prize...
(1963),
Tommaso Landolfi
Tommaso Landolfi
Tommaso Landolfi was an Italian author and translator.Born in Pico, province of Frosinone, he wrote numerous grotesque tales and novels, sometimes on the border of speculative fiction, science fiction and realism...
(1975),
Primo Levi
Primo Levi
Primo Michele Levi was an Italian Jewish chemist and writer. He was the author of two novels and several collections of short stories, essays, and poems, but is best known for If This Is a Man, his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland...
(1979),
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
(1981),
Gesualdo Bufalino
Gesualdo Bufalino
Gesualdo Bufalino , was an Italian writer.Gesualdo Bufalino was born in Comiso, Sicily. He studied literature and was, for most of his life a high-school professor in his hometown...
(1988) and
Claudio Magris
Claudio Magris
Claudio Magris is an Italian scholar, translator and writer.Magris graduated from the University of Turin, where he studied German studies, and has been a professor of modern German literature at the University of Trieste since 1978.He is an essayist and columnist for the Italian newspaper...
(1997).
History
In 1944 Maria and Goffredo Bellonci started to host a literary salonSalon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
at their home in Rome. These Sunday gatherings of writers, artists and intellectuals grew to include many of the most notable figures of Italian cultural life. The group became known as the Amici della Domenica, or ‘Sunday Friends’. In 1947 the Belloncis, together with Guido Alberti, owner of the firm which produces the Strega liqueur, decided to inaugurate a prize for fiction, the winner being chosen by the Sunday friends.
The activities of the Bellonci circle and the institution of the prize were seen as marking a tentative return to ‘normality’ in Italian cultural life: a feature of the reconstruction which followed the years of Fascism, war, occupation and liberation. The first winner of the Strega, elected by the Sunday Friends, was Ennio Flaiano
Ennio Flaiano
Ennio Flaiano , was an Italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist and drama critic...
, for his first and only novel Tempo di uccidere, which is set in Africa during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
The Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire...
. It has been translated into English as The Short Cut.
The selection process
Since the death of Maria Bellonci in 1986, the prize has been administered by the Fondazione Maria e Goffredo Bellonci.The members of the now 400-strong prize jury, drawn from Italy’s cultural elite, are still known as the Sunday Friends. For a book to be considered it must have the support of at least two Friends. This initial long list is whittled down at a first ballot to a short list of five. The second round of voting, followed by the proclamation of the victor, takes place on the first Thursday in July in the nymphaeum
Nymphaeum
A nymphaeum or nymphaion , in ancient Greece and Rome, was a monument consecrated to the nymphs, especially those of springs....
of the Villa Giulia
Villa Giulia
The Villa Giulia is a villa in Rome, Italy. It was built by Pope Julius III in 1550–1555 on what was then the edge of the city. Today it is publicly owned, and houses the Museo Nazionale Etrusco, an impressive collection of Etruscan art and artifacts....
, Rome.
Premio Strega speciale, 2006
In 2006, the seventieth year of the Strega Prize, a special award was made to the Constitution of ItalyConstitution of Italy
The Constitution of the Italian Republic was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended 13 times, was promulgated in the extraordinary edition of Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 298 on 27 December 1947...
, a document which was drawn up and approved during 1946, the year of the Strega’s birth. The award was received by ex-President of the Italian Republic
President of the Italian Republic
The President of the Italian Republic is the head of state of Italy and, as such, is intended to represent national unity and guarantee that Italian politics comply with the Constitution. The president's term of office lasts for seven years....
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro , Italian politician and magistrate, was the ninth President of the Italian Republic from 1992 to 1999, and is currently a senator for life...
.
Winners
- 1947 - Ennio FlaianoEnnio FlaianoEnnio Flaiano , was an Italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist and drama critic...
, Tempo di uccidere - 1948 - Vincenzo CardarelliVincenzo CardarelliVincenzo Cardarelli, pseudonym of Nazareno Caldarelli was an Italian journalist, writer and poet.Cardarelli was born in Corneto, Lazio, to a family of Marche origin. His studies were irregular and he tried different jobs...
, Villa Tarantola - 1949 - Giambattista Angioletti, La memoria
- 1950 - Cesare PaveseCesare PaveseCesare Pavese was an Italian poet, novelist, literary critic and translator; he is widely considered among the major authors of the 20th century in his home country.- Early life and education :...
, La bella estate - 1951 - Corrado AlvaroCorrado AlvaroCorrado Alvaro was an Italian journalist and writer of novels, short stories, screenplays and plays. He often used the verismo style to describes the hopeless poverty in his native Calabria...
, Quasi una vita - 1952 - Alberto MoraviaAlberto MoraviaAlberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism....
, I racconti - 1953 - Massimo BontempelliMassimo BontempelliMassimo Bontempelli was an Italian poet, playwright, and novelist. He was influential in developing and promoting the literary style known as magical realism.-Life:...
, L'amante fedele - 1954 - Mario SoldatiMario SoldatiMario Soldati was an Italian writer and film director.-Biography:Soldati studied Humanities in his native city, Turin, and History of Art in Rome. He started publishing novels in 1929 although his fame came with America primo amore, published in 1935, a diary about the time he spent teaching at...
, Lettere da Capri - 1955 - Giovanni ComissoGiovanni ComissoGiovanni Comisso was an Italian writer.Born in Treviso, he was an important figure of the Italian literature of the first half of the 20th century...
, Un gatto attraversa la strada - 1956 - Giorgio BassaniGiorgio BassaniGiorgio Bassani was an Italian novelist, poet, essayist, editor, and international intellectual.-Biography:Bassani was born in Bologna into a prosperous Jewish family of Ferrara, where he spent his childhood with his mother Dora, father Enrico , brother Paolo, and sister Jenny...
, Cinque storie ferraresi - 1957 - Elsa MoranteElsa MoranteElsa Morante was an Italian novelist, perhaps best known for her novel La storia .-Biography:...
, L'isola di ArturoL'isola di ArturoArturo's Island is a novel by Italian author Elsa Morante. Published in 1957, it won the Premio Strega.-Plot synopsis:In the novel, Arturo, a small boy, grows up on the island of Procida in the Bay of Naples. The island is the location of a penitentiary. Arturo lives in a gloomy mansion bequeathed... - 1958 - Dino BuzzatiDino BuzzatiDino Buzzati-Traverso was an Italian novelist, short story writer, painter and poet, as well as a journalist for Corriere della Sera. His worldwide fame is mostly due to his novel Il deserto dei Tartari, translated into English as The Tartar Steppe.-Life:Buzzati was born at San Pellegrino,...
, Sessanta racconti - 1959 - Giuseppe Tomasi di LampedusaGiuseppe Tomasi di LampedusaGiuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa , was a Sicilian writer. He is most famous for his only novel, Il Gattopardo which is set in Sicily during the Risorgimento...
, Il gattopardoThe LeopardThe Leopard is a novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that chronicles the changes in Sicilian life and society during the Risorgimento... - 1960 - Carlo CassolaCarlo CassolaCarlo Cassola was an important Italian novelist and essayist. His novel La Ragazza di Bube , which received the Strega Prize, was adapted into a film by Luigi Comencini in 1963....
, La ragazza di Bube - 1961 - Raffaele La CapriaRaffaele La CapriaRaffaele La Capria is an Italian writer, known especially for the three novels which were collected as Tre romanzi di una giornata.-Biography:...
, Ferito a morte - 1962 - Mario TobinoMario TobinoMario Tobino was an Italian poet, writer and psychiatrist.Tobino was born in Viareggio, Tuscany. A prolific writer, he debuted as a poet but later composed mostly novels...
, Il clandestino - 1963 - Natalia GinzburgNatalia GinzburgNatalia Ginzburg née Levi was an award-winning Italian author whose work explored family relationships, politics during and after the Fascist years and World War II, and philosophy. She wrote novels, short stories and essays, for which she received the Strega Prize and Bagutta Prize...
, Lessico famigliare - 1964 - Giovanni ArpinoGiovanni ArpinoGiovanni Arpino was an Italian writer and journalist.- Life :Born in Pula to Piedmontese parents, Arpino moved to Bra in the Province of Cuneo...
, L'ombra delle colline - 1965 - Paolo Volponi, La macchina mondiale
- 1966 - Michele Prisco, Una spirale di nebbia
- 1967 - Anna Maria Ortese, Poveri e semplici
- 1968 - Alberto BevilacquaAlberto BevilacquaAlberto Bevilacqua is an Italian writer and filmmaker. Leonardo Sciascia, an Italian writer and politician, read Bevilacqua's first collection of stories, The Dust on the Grass , was impressed and published it...
, L'occhio del gatto - 1969 - Lalla RomanoLalla RomanoLalla Romano was an Italian novelist, poet, and journalist.- Life and work :...
, Le parole tra noi leggere - 1970 - Guido Piovene, Le stelle fredde
- 1971 - Raffaello Brignetti, La spiaggia d'oro
- 1972 - Giuseppe Dessì, Paese d'ombre
- 1973 - Manlio Cancogni, Allegri, gioventù
- 1974 - Guglielmo Petroni, La morte del fiume
- 1975 - Tommaso LandolfiTommaso LandolfiTommaso Landolfi was an Italian author and translator.Born in Pico, province of Frosinone, he wrote numerous grotesque tales and novels, sometimes on the border of speculative fiction, science fiction and realism...
, A caso - 1976 - Fausta Cialente, Le quattro ragazze Wieselberger
- 1977 - Fulvio TomizzaFulvio TomizzaFulvio Tomizza was an Italian language writer. He was born in Giurizzani in Kingdom of Italy ....
, La miglior vita - 1978 - Ferdinando CamonFerdinando CamonFerdinando Camon is a contemporary Italian writer. He is married to a journalist and has two sons: Alessandro Camon, a film producer/writer who lives in Los Angeles, and Alberto, who teaches criminal procedure and lives in Bologna...
, Un altare per la madre - 1979 - Primo LeviPrimo LeviPrimo Michele Levi was an Italian Jewish chemist and writer. He was the author of two novels and several collections of short stories, essays, and poems, but is best known for If This Is a Man, his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland...
, La chiave a stella - 1980 - Vittorio Gorresio, La vita ingenua
- 1981 - Umberto EcoUmberto EcoUmberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
, Il nome della rosaThe Name of the RoseThe Name of the Rose is the first novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory... - 1982 - Goffredo PariseGoffredo PariseGoffredo Parise was an Italian writer and journalist. He won the Viareggio Prize in 1965 and the Strega Prize in 1982. He was an atheist.-References:...
, Il sillabario n.2 - 1983 - Mario Pomilio, Il Natale del 1833
- 1984 - Pietro CitatiPietro CitatiPietro Citati is a famous Italian writer and literary critic.He has written critical biographies of Goethe, Alexander the Great, Kafka and Marcel Proust as well as a short but unforgettable memoir on his thirty-year friendship with Italo Calvino.In Kafka, Pietro Citati has the great writer...
, Tolstoj - 1985 - Carlo Sgorlon, L'armata dei fiumi perduti
- 1986 - Maria BellonciMaria BellonciMaria Villavecchia Bellonci was an Italian writer known especially for her biography of Lucrezia Borgia. She and Guido Alberti set up the Strega Prize in 1947....
, Rinascimento privatoRinascimento privatoRinascimento privato was the last novel written by the Italian writer Maria Bellonci. It won the Strega Prize in 1986... - 1987 - Stanislao NievoStanislao NievoStanislao Nievo is an Italian writer, journalist and director. He won the Strega Prize. It is the little little son of Ippolito Nievo, author of Le confessioni di un italiano.-Works:...
, Le isole del paradiso - 1988 - Gesualdo BufalinoGesualdo BufalinoGesualdo Bufalino , was an Italian writer.Gesualdo Bufalino was born in Comiso, Sicily. He studied literature and was, for most of his life a high-school professor in his hometown...
, Le menzogne della notte - 1989 - Giuseppe PontiggiaGiuseppe PontiggiaGiuseppe Pontiggia was an Italian writer and literary critic.He was born in Como, and moved to Milan with his family in 1948. In 1959 he graduated from the Università Cattolica in Milan with a thesis on Italo Svevo...
, La grande sera - 1990 - Sebastiano Vassalli, La chimera
- 1991 - Paolo Volponi, La strada per Roma
- 1992 - Vincenzo ConsoloVincenzo ConsoloVincenzo Consolo is an Italian writer. He has lived in Milan since 1969. He debuted in 1963, but gained wider attention in 1976 with Il sorriso dell’ignoto marinaio and has since become an award-winning author.- References :...
, Nottetempo, casa per casa - 1993 - Domenico Rea, Ninfa plebea
- 1994 - Giorgio Montefoschi, La casa del padre
- 1995 - Maria Teresa Di Lascia, Passaggio in ombra
- 1996 - Alessandro BarberoAlessandro BarberoAlessandro Barbero is an Italian historian, novelist and essayist. He attended the University of Turin where he studied literature and Medieval history. He won the 1996 Strega Prize, Italy's most distinguished literary award, for Bella vita e guerre altrui di Mr. Pyle gentiluomo. His second novel,...
, Bella vita e guerre altrui di Mr. Pyle, 'gentiluomo - 1997 - Claudio MagrisClaudio MagrisClaudio Magris is an Italian scholar, translator and writer.Magris graduated from the University of Turin, where he studied German studies, and has been a professor of modern German literature at the University of Trieste since 1978.He is an essayist and columnist for the Italian newspaper...
, Microcosmi - 1998 - Enzo SicilianoEnzo SicilianoEnzo Siciliano was an Italian writer, playwright, literary critic and intellectual.Siciliano was born in Rome. He was collaborator of Alberto Moravia, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Elsa Morante and many other famous writers in the 1950s and 1960s.From 1996 to 1998 he was President of RAI...
, I bei momenti - 1999 - Dacia MarainiDacia MarainiDacia Maraini is an Italian writer. She is the daughter of Sicilian Princess Topazia Alliata di Salaparuta, an artist and art dealer, and of Fosco Maraini, a Florentine ethnologist and mountaineer of mixed Ticinese, English and Polish background who wrote in particular on Tibet and Japan...
, Buio - 2000 - Ernesto Ferrero, N.
- 2001 - Domenico StarnoneDomenico StarnoneDomenico Starnone is an Italian writer, screenwriter and journalist.Born in Saviano, near Naples, he collaborated to several newspapapers and satirically magazines, including L'Unità, Il Manifesto, Tango and Cuore, usually about episodes of life as his High School teacher...
, Via Gemito - 2002 - Margaret MazzantiniMargaret MazzantiniMargaret Mazzantini is an Italian writer and actress. She became a film, television and stage actor, but is best known as a writer. Mazzantini began her acting career in 1980 starring in the cult horror classic Antropophagus, she has also appeared in television and theatre...
, Non ti muovere - 2003 - Melania G. Mazzucco, Vita
- 2004 - Ugo RiccarelliUgo RiccarelliUgo Riccarelli is an Italian novelist and short story writer.Born in Turin, Riccarelli read philosophy at the University of Turin. He won the Ugo Riccarelli is an [[Italy|Italian]] novelist and short story writer....
, Il dolore perfetto - 2005 - Maurizio Maggiani, Il viaggiatore notturno
- 2006 - Sandro VeronesiSandro VeronesiSandro Veronesi, born in Prato, Tuscany in 1959, is an Italian novelist, essayist, and journalist. After earning a degree in architecture at the University of Florence, he opted for a writing career in his mid to late twenties. Veronesi published his first book at the age of 25, a collection of...
, Caos calmo - 2007 - Niccolò AmmanitiNiccolò AmmanitiNiccolò Ammaniti is an Italian writer. As a young Italian novelist, Ammaniti was part of the cannibalistic group, from the anthology Gioventù Cannibale by Daniele Brolli , for which he wrote a short novel together with Ricardo Shorts.He became noted in 2001 with the publication of Io non ho paura,...
, Come Dio comanda - 2008 - Paolo GiordanoPaolo GiordanoPaolo Giordano is an Italian writer who won the Premio Strega literary award with his first novel The Solitude of Prime Numbers.- Biography :...
, La solitudine dei numeri primi - 2009 - Tiziano ScarpaTiziano ScarpaTiziano Scarpa is an Italian novelist, playwright and poet.Born in Venice, he won the 2009 Strega Prize for his novel, Stabat mater.- References :*...
, Stabat mater - 2010 - Antonio PennacchiAntonio PennacchiAntonio Pennacchi is an Italian writer.Born in Latina, he won the 2010 Strega Prize for his novel, Canale Mussolini.-Works:*Mammut, Roma, Donzelli, 1994. ISBN 88-7989-086-7....
, Canale Mussolini - 2011 - Edoardo Nesi, Storia della mia gente
External links
- Sito ufficiale del Premio Strega
- Italian Literary Prize Celebrates 50th Anniversary, Library of Congress
- The Strega Prize, from the Strega Alberti company
- http://www.fondazionebellonci.com/materiale_stampa/Schede%20libri.doc, (The official short biographies of the 11 finalists in the 2006 edition).