The Bottari Lattes Foundation continues to work on cultural projects and initiatives related to art and literature, such as the Lattes Grinzane Prize, in compliance with all measures for the containment of the Covid-19 health emergency. The five finalist novels of the Lattes Grinzane 2020 Award and the winner of the Special 2020 Prize will be designated on Tuesday 5th May. They will be announced in the press and on the Facebook page of the Bottari Lattes Foundation, on the Twitter account @BottariLattes, as well as on the website www.fondazionebottarilattes.it
The designation ceremony was scheduled as always in April, in an appointment open to the public and free admission to the meeting space of the CRC Foundation of Cuneo, the main supporter of the Award, together with the Piedmont Region. The health emergency forced the Bottari Lattes Foundation to suspend cultural events aimed at the public, but not to block ongoing projects, such as the Lattes Grinzane Prize, which continues its path and remains in contact with readers, students, enthusiasts of books and hungry for culture.
Organized by the Bottari Lattes Foundation and dedicated to Mario Lattes, the Lattes Grinzane Prize is aimed at works of Italian and international fiction published in Italy between January 2019 and January 2020. After the selection of the five finalist novels by the Technical Jura, the choice of the winning book is entrusted to the judgment of students of the School Juries spread throughout Italy, from Trieste to Lampedusa.
The Special Prize is awarded by the Technical Jury to an international author or author who, over time, has proven to be worthy of shared critical and public appreciation.
To make up the list of five finalist novels are the members of the Technical Jury: the president Gian Luigi Beccaria (linguist, literary critic and essayist), Valter Boggione (teacher), Vittorio Coletti (linguist and adviser of the Accademia della Crusca), Giulio Ferroni (literary critic and scholar of Italian literature), Loredana Lipperini (writer, journalist, radio presenter), Bruno Luverà (journalist), Alessandro Mari (writer and editor), Romano Montroni (president of the Centre for books and reading), Laura Pariani (writer), Lara Ricci (cultural journalist) and Bruno Ventavoli (journalist, literary critic). The five finalist works will be chosen on the basis of their literary value and the representativeness of the most lively and original tendencies of contemporary fiction.
Then young people will take the turn: the five books will be read and discussed by students of the School Juries present in different Italian institutes and who change at each edition to allow a wider participation in the project and reading.
The winners of past editions of the Lattes Grinzane Prize were: Alessandro Perissinotto (Mondadori) in 2019; Yu Hua (Feltrinelli) in 2018; Laurent Mauvignier (Feltrinelli) in 2017; Joachim Meyerhoff (Marsilio) in 2016; Morten Brask (Hyperborea) in 2015; Andrew Sean Greer (Bompiani) in 2014; Melania Mazzucco (Einaudi) in 2013; Romana Petri (Longanesi) in 2012; Colum McCann (Rizzoli) in 2011. The schools that are currently part of the 2020 School Juries are: Istituto di Istruzione Superiore “G. Govone” Alba (Cuneo), signalled by Banca d‘Alba; Liceo Ginnasio di Stato “Francesco Scaduto” di Bagheria (Palermo); Istituto di Istruzione Superiore “M. Pagano” Campobasso; Liceo “Luigi Garofano” Capua (Caserta); Istituto di Istruzione Superiore “La Rosa Bianca” Cavalese (Trento); Istituto di Istruzione Superiore “Cataldo Agostinelli” Ceglie Messapica (Brindisi); Liceo Classico Statale “G. Cevolani” Cento (Ferrara); Liceo Scientifico “Giandomenico Cassini” Genova; Istituto Omnicomprensivo “Luigi Pirandello” Lampedusa (Agrigento); Liceo Classico Statale “A. Manzoni” Lecco; Liceo Classico – Linguistico “G. Leopardi” Macerata; Istituto di Istruzione Superiore Statale “Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa” Montefiascone (Viterbo); Liceo Classico Statale “A. Gramsci” Olbia; Liceo Classico “Quinto Orazio Flacco” Potenza; Istituto di Istruzione Superiore “Arimondi – Eula” Savigliano (Cuneo); Istituto di Istruzione Superiore “Sansi – Leonardi – Volta” Spoleto (Perugia); Liceo Classico “Francesco Corradini” Thiene (Vicenza); Liceo Classico Statale “Massimo D’Azeglio” Torino; Liceo “Carducci – Dante” Trieste; Istituto di Istruzione Superiore “Lagrangia” Vercelli; Liceo Classico “G. Carducci” Viareggio (Lucca); Istituto di Istruzione Superiore “Morelli – Colao” Vibo Valentia.
The Lattes Grinzane Prize provides for the recognition of the Special Prize, awarded by the Technical Jury to an international author or author who, over time, has proven to be worthy of a shared critical and public appreciation. Previous editions were won by: Haruki Murakami (Japan; Einaudi) in 2019; António Lobo Antunes in 2018 (Portugal; Feltrinelli); Ian McEwan in 2017 (England; Einaudi); Amos Oz in 2016 (Israel; Feltrinelli); Javier Marías in 2015 (Spain; Einaudi); in 2014 Martin Amis (Great Britain; Einaudi); Alberto Arbasino in 2013 (Adelphi); Patrick Modiano) in 2012 (France – 2014 Nobel Prize; Guanda and Einaudi; Enrique Vila-Matas in 2011 (Spain; Feltrinelli).
The days dedicated to the writers and their award ceremony are scheduled for Friday 9th and Saturday 10th October in the Langhe.
The Lattes Grinzane Prize is named after Mario Lattes (publisher, painter, writer, who passed away in 2001) and is organized by the Bottari Lattes Foundation with the support of the Piedmont Region, CRC Foundation, CRT Foundation, Banca D’Alba, Cantina Giacomo Conterno, Banor ; with the patronage of Mibact, City of Alba, Municipality of Grinzane Cavour, Municipality of Monforte d’Alba, City of Cuneo, Union of Municipalities of the Langa and Barolo Hills, Polo del ‘900, Lattes publishing house; with the contribution of WiMu-Wine Museum, Azienda Agricola Conterno Fantino, Enoteca Regionale Piemontese Cavour, Cantina Terre del Barolo, International Alba White Truffle Fair, Antico Borgo Monchiero, Réva Vino & Resort, Antica Torroneria Piemontese; under the auspices of the Centre for books and reading.
The technical jury
Gian Luigi Beccaria
President
He was born in Costigliole Saluzzo (Cuneo) in 1936, he is an emeritus professor at the University of Turin, where he taught History of the Italian language. He is a member of the Academician dei Lincei, the Accademia della Crusca and the Academy of Sciences of Turin. He has published volumes dedicated to ancient and modern Italian: moments and aspects in the Italian eighteenth century, linguistic relations between Italy and Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, prose and poetry of the twentieth century, literature and dialect, sectoral languages of contemporary Italian, general linguistics, popular traditions. Among his publications: Sicuterat. Il latino di chi non lo sa: Bibbia e liturgia nell’italiano dei dialetti (Garzanti, nuova ed. 2001), Elogio della lentezza (Aragno, 2004), Per difesa e per amore (Garzanti, 2006), Tra le pieghe delle parole (Einaudi, 2007), Misticanze. Parole del gusto e linguaggi del cibo (Garzanti, 2009), Il mare in un imbuto. Dove va la lingua italiana (Einaudi, 2010), Alti su di me. Maestri e metodi, testi e ricordi (Einaudi, 2013), Ritmo e melodia nella prosa italiana. Studi e ricerche sulla prosa d’arte (rist. Olschki, 2013), La guerra e gli asfodeli. Romanzo e vocazione epica in Beppe Fenoglio (Aragno, 2013), Le forme della parola. Da Sbarbaro a De André: testimonianze sul Novecento (Rizzoli, 2013), L’italiano in 100 parole (Rizzoli, 2014), Lingua madre. Italiano e inglese nel mondo globale (con A. Graziosi, il Mulino, 2015), L’italiano che resta. Le parole e le storie (Einaudi, 2016) and Il pozzo e l’ago. Intorno al mestiere di scrivere (Einaudi, 2019).
Valter Boggione
He was born in Alba (Cuneo) in 1966, he is full professor of Italian literature at the University of Turin. He has dealt in particular with Baroque poetry, Manzoni and Tommaseo, Gozzano and twilight, Turin writers-painters (Mario Lattes and Italo Cremona) and issues related to literary intertextuality. He edited the poetry and tragedy edition of Manzoni for Utet, with extensive commentary, as well as editions of Leporeo and Dotti.
For several years he answered questions on the Italian language for the weekly Specchio de La Stampa. The volume on Fenoglio La sfortuna in favor, published by Marsilio, is from 2011. Numerous works of history of the language, with Dizionario storico del lessico erotico italiano (Utet, 2015) and Dizionario dei proverbi (Utet, 2007).
Vittorio Coletti
He was born in Pontedassio (Imperia) in 1948, from 1986 to 2017 he was full professor of History of the Italian language at the University of Genoa and an academic of Crusca. He taught at the University of Trento, Paris VIII and Nice. His studies concern literary Italian (Storia dell’italiano letterario, Einaudi, 1993; Italiano d’autore, Marietti, 1989; Dietro la parola, Dell’Orso, 2000), the role of religious education in the diffusion of Italian (Parole dal pulpito, nuova ed. accresciuta CUSL, 2006) and the events of the common language, both in its lexicon (Eccessi di parole. Sovrabbondanza e intemperanza lessicale in italiano dal Medioevo a oggi, Cesati, 2012 and Dizionario della lingua italiana, Sansoni, 2008 e 2012, con Francesco Sabatini) both in its grammar (Grammatica dell’italiano adulto, il Mulino, 2015). Attentive to fiction, he dealt with the novel in the age of globalization in Romanzo mondo (il Mulino, 2011). He writes on L’Indice dei libri e la Repubblica – Il lavoro.
Giulio Ferroni
He was born in Rome in 1943, from 1975 to 1982 he taught at the University of Calabria, then until 2013 at the Sapienza University of Rome, of which he is emeritus professor. He gathered the experience of studying the different areas of Italian literature in Storia della letteratura italiana (Einaudi, 1991; Mondadori, 2012). His studies on the Italian sixteenth century are partially collected in the volumes Mutazione e riscontro nel teatro di Machiavelli (Bulzoni, 1972), Le voci dell’istrione. Pietro Aretino e la dissoluzione del teatro (Liguori, 1977), Il testo e la scena (Bulzoni, 1980), Machiavelli o dell’incertezza (Donzelli, 2003), Ariosto (Salerno, 2008). A synthesis of his perspective, both theoretical and militant, is given by Dopo la fine. Sulla condizione postuma della letteratura (Einaudi, 1996, Donzelli, 2010) and I confini della critica (Guida, 2005). Essays on contemporary literature are included in the volume Passioni del Novecento (Donzelli, 1999). Among other publications: Prima lezione di letteratura italiana (Laterza, 2009), La passion predominante. Perché la letteratura (Liguori, 2009), Scritture a perdere (Laterza, 2010), Gli ultimi poeti. Giovanni Giudici e Andrea Zanzotto (il Saggiatore, 2013), <i style=”mso-bidi-font-s