The Strega Prize ( ) is the most important Italian

literary award A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded Literature, literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award c ...

. 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

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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 The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression waged by Italy against Ethiopia, which lasted from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Ita ...

. 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.

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 The Villa Giulia is a villa in Rome, Italy. It is named after Pope Julius III, who had it built in 1551–1553 on what was then the edge of the city. Today it is publicly owned, and houses the Museo Nazionale Etrusco, a collection of Etruscan ...

, Rome.

Sponsorship

Telecom Italia TIM S.p.A. (formerly Telecom Italia S.p.A.) is an Italian telecommunications company with headquarters in Rome, Milan, and Naples (with the Telecom Italia Tower), which provides fixed, public and mobile telephony, and DSL data services. It is ...

joined Liquore Strega as sponsors of the prize.

Premio Strega speciale, 2006

In 2006, the sixtieth year of the Strega Prize, a special award was made to the

Constitution of Italy The Constitution of the Italian Republic () was ratified on 22 December 1947 by the Constituent Assembly of Italy, Constituent Assembly, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against, before coming into force on 1 January 1948, one century after the p ...

, 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 Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (; 9 September 1918 – 29 January 2012) was an Italian politician who served as President of Italy from 1992 to 1999. A member of Christian Democracy (DC), he became an independent politician after the DC's dissolution in 1 ...

Winners

*1947 – Ennio Flaiano, '' Tempo di uccidere'' *1948 – Vincenzo Cardarelli, ''Villa Tarantola'' *1949 – Giambattista Angioletti, ''La memoria'' *1950 – Cesare Pavese, '' La bella estate'' *1951 – Corrado Alvaro, ''Quasi una vita'' *1952 –

Alberto Moravia Alberto Pincherle (; 28 November 1907 – 26 September 1990), known by his pseudonym Alberto Moravia ( , ), was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation and existentialism. Moravia i ...

, ''I racconti'' *1953 – Massimo Bontempelli, ''L'amante fedele'' *1954 –

Mario Soldati Mario Soldati (17 November 1906 – 19 June 1999) was an Italian writer and film director. In 1954, he won the Strega Prize for ''Lettere da Capri.'' He directed several works adapted from novels, and worked with leading Italian actresses, s ...

, ''Lettere da Capri'' *1955 – Giovanni Comisso, ''Un gatto attraversa la strada'' *1956 –

Giorgio Bassani Giorgio Bassani (Bologna, 4 March 1916 – Rome, 13 April 2000) was an Italians, Italian novelist, poet, essayist, editor, and international intellectual. Biography Bassani was born in Bologna into a prosperous Jewish family of Ferrara, where h ...

, ''Cinque storie ferraresi'' *1957 –

Elsa Morante Elsa Morante (; 18 August 1912 – 25 November 1985) was an Italian novelist, poet, translator and children's books author. Her novel '' La storia'' (''History'') is included in the Bokklubben World Library List of 100 Best Books of All Time. L ...

, '' L'isola di Arturo'' *1958 – Dino Buzzati, '' Sessanta racconti'' *1959 – Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, '' Il gattopardo'' *1960 – Carlo Cassola, '' La ragazza di Bube'' *1961 – Raffaele La Capria, ''Ferito a morte'' *1962 –

Mario Tobino Mario Tobino (16 January 1910, Viareggio, Province of Lucca, Tuscany – 11 December 1991, Agrigento) was an Italian poet, writer and psychiatrist. A prolific writer, he began as a poet but later wrote mostly novels. His works are characterize ...

, ''Il clandestino'' *1963 – Natalia Ginzburg, '' Lessico famigliare'' *1964 – Giovanni Arpino, '' L'ombra delle colline'' *1965 –

Paolo Volponi Paolo Volponi (6 February 1924 – 23 August 1994) was an Italian writer, poet, and politician. Biography Volponi was born on 6 February 1924, in Urbino, Italy. He joined the Italian partisans in 1943. He studied law at Urbino University, w ...

, '' La macchina mondiale'' *1966 – Michele Prisco, ''Una spirale di nebbia'' *1967 – Anna Maria Ortese, ''Poveri e semplici'' *1968 – Alberto Bevilacqua, ''L'occhio del gatto'' *1969 – Lalla Romano, ''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 Landolfi, ''A caso'' *1976 – Fausta Cialente, ''Le quattro ragazze Wieselberger'' *1977 – Fulvio Tomizza, ''La miglior vita'' *1978 – Ferdinando Camon, ''Un altare per la madre'' *1979 –

Primo Levi Primo Michele Levi (; 31 July 1919 – 11 April 1987) was a Jewish Italian chemist, partisan, Holocaust survivor and writer. He was the author of several books, collections of short stories, essays, poems and one novel. His best-known works i ...

, ''La chiave a stella'' *1980 – Vittorio Gorresio, ''La vita ingenua'' *1981 –

Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian Medieval studies, medievalist, philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular ...

, ''Il nome della rosa'' *1982 –

Goffredo Parise Goffredo Parise (8 December 1929 in Vicenza – 31 August 1986 in Treviso) was an Italian writer, journalist, and screenwriter. He won the Viareggio Prize in 1965 for his novel ''Il padrone'' ''(The Boss)'' and the Strega Prize in 1982 for ''S ...

, ''Il sillabario n.2'' *1983 – Mario Pomilio, ''Il Natale del 1833'' *1984 – Pietro Citati, ''Tolstoj'' *1985 – Carlo Sgorlon, ''L'armata dei fiumi perduti'' *1986 – Maria Bellonci, '' Rinascimento privato'' *1987 – Stanislao Nievo, ''Le isole del paradiso'' *1988 – Gesualdo Bufalino, ''Le menzogne della notte '' *1989 –

Giuseppe Pontiggia Giuseppe Pontiggia (; 25 September 1934 – 27 June 2003) was an Italian literature, Italian writer and literary critic. Biography He was born in Como, and moved to Milan with his family in 1948. In 1959 he graduated from the Università Cattoli ...

, ''La grande sera '' *1990 –

Sebastiano Vassalli Sebastiano Vassalli (24 October 1941 – 26 July 2015) was an Italian author. He wrote the 2007 novel ''The Italian (L'italiano)''. Vassalli was born in Genoa, Italy in 1941. His mother was from Tuscany and his father was from Lombardy. At a v ...

, ''La chimera'' *1991 –

, ''La strada per Roma'' *1992 –

Vincenzo Consolo Vincenzo Consolo (18 February 1933 – 21 January 2012) was an Italian writer. Consolo was born in Sant'Agata di Militello but resided in Milan from 1969 until his death. He began his literary career in 1963, but gained wider attention in 197 ...

, ''Nottetempo, ''casa per casa'' *1993 – Domenico Rea, ''Ninfa plebea'' *1994 – Giorgio Montefoschi, ''La casa del padre'' *1995 – Mariateresa Di Lascia, ''Passaggio in ombra'' *1996 – Alessandro Barbero, ''Bella vita e guerre altrui di Mr. Pyle, 'gentiluomo *1997 – Claudio Magris, ''Microcosmi '' *1998 – Enzo Siciliano, ''I bei momenti '' *1999 – Dacia Maraini, ''Buio '' *2000 – Ernesto Ferrero, ''N. '' *2001 – Domenico Starnone, ''Via Gemito '' *2002 – Margaret Mazzantini, ''Non ti muovere '' *2003 – Melania Mazzucco, ''Vita'' *2004 – Ugo Riccarelli, ''Il dolore perfetto '' *2005 – Maurizio Maggiani, ''Il viaggiatore notturno '' *2006 – Sandro Veronesi, ''Caos calmo'' *2007 – Niccolò Ammaniti, '' Come Dio comanda'' *2008 –

Paolo Giordano Paolo Giordano (born 1982) is an Italian writer who won the Premio Strega literary award with his debut novel, first novel ''The Solitude of Prime Numbers (novel), The Solitude of Prime Numbers''. Biography Paolo Giordano was born on 19 Dec ...

, '' La solitudine dei numeri primi'' *2009 – Tiziano Scarpa, ''Stabat mater'' *2010 – Antonio Pennacchi, ''Canale Mussolini'' *2011 – Edoardo Nesi, ''Storia della mia gente'' *2012 – Alessandro Piperno, ''Inseparabili'' *2013 – Walter Siti, ''Resistere non serve a niente'' *2014 – Francesco Piccolo, ''Il desiderio di essere come tutti'' *2015 – Nicola Lagioia, ''La Ferocia'' *2016 – Edoardo Albinati, ''La scuola cattolica'' *2017 –

Paolo Cognetti Paolo Cognetti (born 27 January 1978) is an Italian writer and filmmaker, winner of the 2017 Strega Prize. Biography Born in Milan, he initially studied mathematics at university, but quit to enroll at Milan's film-making school ''Civica Scu ...

, '' Le otto montagne'' *2018 – Helena Janeczek, ''La ragazza con la Leica'' *2019 – Antonio Scurati, '' M. Il figlio del secolo'' *2020 – Sandro Veronesi, '' Il colibrì'' *2021 – Emanuele Trevi, ''Due vite'' *2022 – Mario Desiati, ''Spatriati'' *2023 – Ada D'Adamo, ''Come d'aria'' *2024 – Donatella Di Pietrantonio, '

References

External links

Sito ufficiale del Premio Strega

Library of Congress

from the Strega Alberti company

(The official short biographies of the 11 finalists in the 2006 edition). {{Authority control Strega Prize, Awards established in 1947 Italian literary awards Strega 1947 establishments in Italy