Login
Login

Strega Prize

{{Short description|Most prestigious Italian literary award}}

File:Strega advert 1902.jpg

The Strega Prize ({{langx|it|Premio Strega}} {{IPA|it|ˈprɛːmjo ˈstreːɡa|}}) is the most important Italian literary award.{{cite web |url=http://www.complete-review.com/saloon/archive/201407a.htm#my8 |title=Premio Strega Europeo |work=complete review |author=M. A. Orthofer |date=July 3, 2014 |access-date=July 3, 2014 |quote=the Premio Strega, the major Italian book prize |archive-date=January 19, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220119161546/https://complete-review.com/saloon/archive/201407a.htm#my8 |url-status=live }} It has been awarded annually since 1947 for the best work of prose fiction written in the Italian language by an author of any nationality and first published between 1 March of the previous year and 28/29 February.

History

In 1944 Maria and Goffredo Bellonci started to host a literary salon 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.{{cite book|editor=Gino Moliterno|title=Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4wOGAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA469|date= 2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-75877-7|page=469}}

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,{{cite book|author=Robin Healey|title=Twentieth-century Italian Literature in English Translation: An Annotated Bibliography 1929-1997|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t7WVhymRPZEC&pg=PA43|year=1998|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-0800-8|page=43}} 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 A Time to Kill and The Short Cut.

Maria Bellonci published a history of the Strega prize, titled Come un racconto gli anni del premio Strega, in 1971.{{cite book|author=Katharina M. Wilson|title=An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Wf1SVbGFg8C&pg=PA109|year=1991|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-8240-8547-6|page=109}}

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 of the Villa Giulia, Rome.

Sponsorship

Telecom Italia joined Liquore Strega as sponsors of the prize.{{cite book|title=Britannica Book of the Year 2014|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LccRAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA285|year=2014|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica|isbn=978-1-62513-171-3|page=285}}

Premio Strega speciale, 2006

In 2006, the sixtieth year of the Strega Prize, a special award was made to the Constitution of Italy, a document which was drawn up and approved in 1946, the year of the Strega’s inauguration. The award was received by former President of the Italian Republic Oscar Luigi Scalfaro.{{cite web|language=it|url=http://www.wuz.it/articolo-libri/126/Cinquina-Strega.html|title=La cinquina del 60° Premio Strega|publisher=Wuz.it|date=June 9, 2006|access-date=July 21, 2015|archive-date=July 22, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150722214046/http://www.wuz.it/articolo-libri/126/Cinquina-Strega.html|url-status=live}}

Winners

References

{{Reflist|30em}}

External links

  • [http://www.premiostrega.it/ Sito ufficiale del Premio Strega] {{in lang|it}}
  • [https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/970623/strega.html Italian Literary Prize Celebrates 50th Anniversary], Library of Congress
  • [http://www.strega.it/eng/premio.html 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).

{{Strega Prize}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Awards established in 1947

Category:Italian literary awards

Strega

Category:1947 establishments in Italy