Walter Siti (born 20 May 1947) is an Italian novelist, essayist, literary critic and academic.

Life and career

Born in

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

, Siti graduated from the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa (, UniPi) is a public university, public research university in Pisa, Italy. Founded in 1343, it is one of the oldest universities in Europe. Together with Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Sant'Anna School of Advanced S ...

and got a doctorate from the

Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa The Scuola Normale Superiore (commonly known in Italy as "la Normale") is a public university in Pisa and Florence, Tuscany, Italy, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate (PhD) students. Together with the University of Pi ...

. He served as professor of contemporary Italian literature at the

, University of Cosenza and

University of L'Aquila The University of L'Aquila () is a public research university located in L'Aquila, Central Italy. It was founded in 1964 (its history begins in 1596) and is organized in nine departments. The university presents a scientific-technological charac ...

. He made his literary debut as a critic, writing essays on

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist ...

, Sandro Penna and

Eugenio Montale Eugenio Montale (; 12 October 1896 – 12 September 1981) was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator. In 1975, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for 'for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has ...

, among others. In 1994, Siti released his first novel, ''Scuola di nudo'' ("Nude School"). His 2008 novel ''The Contagion'' ('Il contagio') was adapted into a film, '' Tainted Souls''. In 2013, his novel ''Resistere non serve a niente'' ("Resisting serves no purpose") won the

Strega Prize The Strega Prize ( ) is the most important Italian literary award. 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 t ...

and the Mondello Prize. His 2021 essay ''Riflessioni sul Bene in letteratura'' ("Reflections on the Good in Literature") won the

Viareggio Prize The Viareggio Prize ( or ) is an Italian literature, literary prize, first awarded in 1930. Named after the Tuscany, Tuscan city of Viareggio, it was conceived by three friends, , Carlo Salsa and Leonida Repaci, to rival the Milanese Bagutta Priz ...

. Siti is also a television writer, and a television critic for the newspaper ''

La Stampa (English: "The Press") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin with an average circulation of 87,143 copies in May 2023. Distributed in Italy and other European nations, it is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy. Until the late 1970 ...

''.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Siti, Walter 1947 births Living people Writers from Modena 20th-century Italian novelists 21st-century Italian novelists University of Pisa alumni Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa alumni Academic staff of the University of Pisa Academic staff of the University of L'Aquila