Paris: Italy guest of honour at the Festival du Livre de Paris and Italissimo Festival
Italy will be the guest of honour at the Festival du Livre de Paris from 17 to 23 April 2023. At the same time, the eighth edition of ITALISSIMO, the Festival of Italian Literature and Culture, will take place (from 18 to 23 April in various venues around the city). With the participation of over fifty special ambassadors of our country’s creativity: women writers, invited to present their most recent books and translations coming onto the French-speaking market.
Participation in the Festival du Livre de Paris in a 500 square metre area inside the Grand Palais Éphémère is part of a path of international promotion of Italian publishing that in 2024 will also touch upon the Frankfurter Buchmesse (again as Guest of Honour) and is made possible by the support and collaboration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Culture with the Centre for Books and Reading, the Italian Embassy in Paris, the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris, ICE – Agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalisation of Italian companies and AIE – Italian Publishers’ Association (which, as on similar occasions, makes use of the Ex Libris agency).
The programme for the Festival du Livre de Paris is flanked by that of ITALISSIMO. Created in 2016, the Festival has established itself as one of the most eagerly awaited events for the promotion of Italian literature and culture in Paris, with a growing following from both the transalpine cultural world and the public and media. ITALISSIMO offers a highly articulated programme, in which a mix of the best-loved authors from the Italian publishing scene and a selection of new voices takes place through the exchange and intertwining with the other arts: between writing and image, thought and performance. It takes place in various venues and in collaboration with prestigious cultural institutions in the city, such as the Maison de la Poésie, the Italian Cultural Institute, the Consulate General of Italy, the Théâtre de l’Odéon, the Théâtre Les Déchargeurs, Sciences Po, Sorbonne Université, Sorbonne Nouvelle, the L’Entrepôt and Panthéon cinemas, the Maison d’Italie, the Bibliothèque Publique d’Information of the Centre Pompidou and the high schools of the Paris region. This eighth edition of ITALISSIMO is supported not only by ICE – Agency but also by Centre National du Livre, Sofia, Drac Ȋle de France, Monte Paschi Banque, Castaldi & Partners and Comité d’animation culturelle Paris1.
Passioni Italiane will first and foremost be a great celebration of authors. They will be entrusted with the task of telling the French public about the creative, cultural, editorial and artistic wealth of contemporary Italy. But the journey – which is anticipated in early 2023 by the cycle Sei autori sulla via del Festival del Libro di Parigi, underway at the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris – will break down the barriers of the present, going back to the sources of literature and the universal myth of the Comedy (Le voci di Dante with Toni Servillo, opening event on Monday 17 April at the Théâtre de l’Odéon), and then descend the river of time in the company of the classics, with tributes to Gabriele d’Annunzio and Italo Calvino. To the latter, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth, the exhibition Eccellenze italiane. Figures for Italo Calvino, organised in collaboration with Bologna Children’s Book Fair and set up inside the Italian Pavilion. An exciting spring week, in which the colours of Italy – protagonists in the poster image signed by Emiliano Ponzi – will contribute to making the ville lumière even brighter.
ITALIAN AUTHORS PRESENT IN PARIS FROM 17 TO 23 APRIL FOR ITALIAN PASSIONS
Milena Agus – Stefania Auci – Silvia Avallone – Pierdomenico Baccalario – Alessandro Baricco – Pietrangelo Buttafuoco – Giosuè Calaciura – Giulia Caminito – Alessandro Campi – Franco Cardini – Gianrico Carofiglio – Donato Carrisi – Teresa Ciabatti – Emanuele Coccia – Paolo Cognetti – Giuseppe Conte – Giuliano da Empoli – Giancarlo De Cataldo – Maurizio de Giovanni – Mario Desiati – Andrea Donaera – Fulvio Ervas – Maurizio Ferraris – Giovanni Grasso – Simonetta Greggio – Giordano Bruno Guerri – Dario Levantino – Marco Lodoli – Francesca Manfredi – Andrea Marcolongo – Fabiano Massimi – Daniele Mencarelli – Chiara Mezzalama – Sacha Naspini – Veronica Raimo – Paolo Rumiz – Elisa Ruotolo – Beatrice Salvioni – Antonio Scurati – Maurizio Serra – Emanuele Trevi – Ilaria Tuti – Giorgio Vasta – Beatrice Venezi – Marcello Veneziani
ITALIAN AUTHORS IN PREVIEWS AT THE ITALIAN INSTITUTE OF CULTURE
Six authors in dialogue with their translators, publishers and the Parisian public. Warming up the ground in view of the Italian Passions is the series of appointments organised by the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris, currently taking place in the IIC premises at 50 Rue de Varenne. The initiative was opened on 17 January by Nicola Lagioia and Patrice Hoffmann, French editor of La Ville des vivants (Flammarion, 2022), and continued on 31 January with Donatella Di Pietrantonio and Laura Brignon (translator of Borgo Sud, Albin Michel, 2023), on 9 February with Viola Ardone and Anne Michel (editor of Le Choix, Albin Michel, 2022) and on 14 February with Fabio Bacà and Julia Nannicelli (editor of Une chance insolente, Gallimard, 2022). The last two appointments are scheduled on 21 February with Ilaria Gaspari (Petit manuel philosophique à l’intention des grands émotifs, PUF) and the philosopher Pascal Chabot (on the themes dealt with in Avoir le temps. Essai de chronosophie, 2021), and on 7 March with Domenico Starnone and Lise Caillat, translator of Nos fautes inavouées (Fayard, 2023). All meetings are moderated by Paolo Grossi of www.newitalianbooks.it and take place at 7 p.m.
