Costa Smeralda Prize 2025: an edition under the banner of dialogue between literature and art

Finalist trios announced. The two overall winners will be announced on Saturday, April 26 in Porto Cervo

Culture has always been at home in Porto Cervo. Since its founding, the famous tourist destination has been a promoter of the highest and most prestigious international cultural expressions, from art to architecture via music and literature. And it is in the wake of a nearly 60-year history and experience that the Consorzio Costa Smeralda chaired by Renzo Persico, in 2018, conceived and established the Costa Smeralda Prize, strongly desired by Mario Ferraro, vice president of the Consorzio Costa Smeralda . An event capable from the outset of enhancing and promoting culture - and literature in particular - through the works, projects and testimonies of authors, scholars and illustrious personalities.

The first two editions of the prize, which, as artistic director, had actress, director and television author Beatrice Luzzi, were entirely dedicated to the sea, understood as a cultural, scientific, ecological and economic engine. As of 2022, the new artistic director of the Costa Smeralda Literary Prize is journalist and publishing and literature expert Stefano Salis. Beginning with the third edition of the prize, it was decided to broaden the boundaries of the theme and consequently the audience of potential winners, without, however, renouncing the specificity of the sea and the Mediterranean in particular. Writer Marcello Fois, among others, was called to join the jury. Two since then the sections: Fiction and Non-Fiction.

“With pride, the Consortium promotes this new edition of the Costa Smeralda Prize, which is now a key moment for contemporary culture. Every year, thanks to the contribution of great authors and artists, we are able to turn the spotlight on extremely topical issues, through a vision that combines different forms of cultural expression"- said Renzo Persico, President of Consorzio Costa Smeralda.

Mario Ferraro, vice president of the Costa Smeralda Consortium, said, “The event grows in prestige every year and enriches the attractiveness of the destination internationally, thanks to the careful work in the selection of authors and works and the great participation of the public and all lovers of literature

Premio Costa Smeralda 2025

On the strength of previous editions, the Prize has secured a leading role among the major cultural events in Italy. This was possible thanks to a high quality jury, composed of Lina Bolzoni, Marcello Fois, Elena Loewenthal and Chiara Valerio, led by artistic director and jury president Stefano Salis. Also this year, the judges each year selected the finalist trios of the Prize divided into the two specific categories: Fiction and Nonfiction.

Here are the books competing in the final, which will take place on Saturday, April 26 at 5:30 p.m. at the Conference Center in Porto Cervo. The event has free admission.

Nonfiction

Il Mago Delle Parole by Giuseppe Antonelli

A narrative essay that turns the tables and shifts our gaze on our language, taking us inside a classroom where Italian class time becomes the most exciting time of the entire day.

Autoritratti by Tommaso Spazzini Villa

Autoritratti is a participatory art project that calls into question the unconscious and literature. In 2018 Tommaso Spazzini Villa involves more than 361 inmates from different Italian prisons, entrusting each of them with a different page from a copy of Homer's Odyssey. On the single sheet, each participant is sent to intervene with underlining and comments, highlighting words so as to compose sentences that make sense, representative of the inmate or his state of mind. The Homeric text is thus transformed into a kind of stage backdrop, where the real actors in the field are the participants and the space of expression that is made available to them to trace their own “self-portrait.”

Visus. Storie del volto dall'antichità al selfie by Riccardo Falcinelli

“What could be easier than the face? We all have one, and we have to deal with other people's. Yet, of all the things we happen to look at, the face remains the most enigmatic.” After Cromorama and Figures, Riccardo Falcinelli again revolutionizes our view of something we take for granted: faces. In art, in movies, in advertisements, on TikTok and even in the mirror every morning.

Narrativa

Di spalle a questo mondo by Wanda Marasco

If it is true that every existence comes into the world to embody a drama, that of Ferdinando Palasciano and his wife Olga Pavlova Vavilova is among the most painful and irreducible: it is the drama of imperfection. Since childhood Ferdinand has hated death to the point of making salvation his obsession as a doctor. But such a great vocation, clashing with the iniquities suffered, can only fail and find a home in madness. Olga, in her childhood in Rostov, had to contend precisely with maternal alienation, the quintessence of History and fragility. The only escape from it is escape, held back by a root hidden under the snow and lameness, which becomes destiny and communion with the imperfect. But can one live one step away from the ideal? Ferdinand, from the darkness of his dulled ratio, will continue to save donkeys and puppets; while Olga, though healed by science and Ferdinand's love, will return to claudication. You do not believe that when we break, it is forever?

La casa delle orfane bianche by Fiammetta Palpati

To help each other, three middle-aged women decide to retire to a village house with their respective elderly mothers, in need of assistance. Living together, on paper, is a perfect fit: what better than the rusticity of the good old days to share expenses, thoughts, duties, and perhaps restore that intimate mother-daughter bond of caregiving and love that is currently reversed? But the nest very soon shows itself for what it is: a den of immaturity, resentment, self-centeredness and despair that results in a tragicomic collective delirium: the house turns against the tenants and their desire, suffocating them among garbage, a treacherous dog and the nauseating smell of a spoiled duck. The situation precipitates when a bogus and infirm nun arrives in the house, theoretically as a caregiver, who sits in an armchair and demands to be served and revered.

L’isola e il tempo by Claudia Lanteri

There are places that are worlds. Such is the never-named island across from 'Mpidusa in the late 1950s: a few inhabitants who have known each other forever, three peaks seen from the sea, the dry vegetation, the black earth. And the toil of men and women for subsistence: fishing, the meager crops of capers and lentils, a few beasts. Breaking the rhythm of the days is the arrival of a boat carrying two people: a man alive and a woman dead. A fire destroyed their sailboat, says the survivor, and the Domoculta couple and their three children also lost their lives in the wreck. While Marshal Bonomo opens an investigation convinced he can soon file it, 13-year-old Nonò turns detective.

In keeping with the tradition of the Costa Smeralda Prize, in addition to the books chosen by the jury, there are three additional awards this year as well: the International Prize to Björn Larsson, a Swedish writer and French scholar who has established himself as one of the most interesting and original voices on the international literary scene; the Mediterranean Culture Prize to artist Adrian Pac; and finally the Special Prize to Giorgio Spanu, co-founder with Nancy Olnick of the Magazzino Italian Art Foundation in New York.

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