The first Annalena Benini Book Fair is dedicated to imaginary life.
It will be held at Lingotto Fiere from Thursday 9th to Monday 13th May, with Liguria as the guest region, while there will not be a guest country, but a language, German.
"It will be a show full of life, movement and women. I bring my personality, my passions. What I love to read, listen to and meet will be my distinctive brand, but this is teamwork", said Benini during the first meeting on 'his' Salon.
The location chosen was new: the Teatro Regio in Turin, a packed room.
At her side are all the Turin and Piedmontese institutions, the president of the Liguria Region Giovanni Toti, her foundations, Intesa Sanpaolo, many of the writers who have worked with her in recent months.
"We will give space to all sensitive issues. With the editorial team we are building panels with a view on the world: the conflict in the Middle East, but not only: the Salon will talk about this complex world, with literature at its centre, but also life and what happens. We have the desire and intention to create places of meeting and never of conflict", explained the director. To kick off the Show, as in previous editions, there will be the traditional event organized with Rai Radio3, scheduled on the evening of Wednesday 8 May.
The opening lecture will be held by Elizabeth Strout, one of the greatest authors of contemporary American literature, Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction.
Each of the seven sections - explained Benini - will have its own guests.
For Art, curated by Melania Mazzucco, Alexandra Lapierre, author of historical novels, will arrive;
for the Cinema section, curated by Francesco Piccolo, Paolo Sorrentino will be present, director, screenwriter and film producer, Oscar winner in 2014 with The Great Beauty;
Teresa Cremisi, curator of the Publishing section, will talk about the daily life of a publisher and will have among her guests Antoine Gallimard, nephew of Gaston Gallimard, founder of the well-known French publishing house;
Francesco Costa, curator of the Information section, will talk about these changes and their impact on society with some of the most expert and competent people in Italian and international journalism, such as Jill Abramson, the first woman to direct the New York Times;
in the Leggerezza section, curated by Luciana Littizzetto, there will be a meeting on Marcello Marchesi with Gianni Morandi;
with Erin Doom, curator of the Romance section, there will be the Spanish writer Mercedes Ron;
while Domenico Starnone will be the protagonist of one of the meetings in the Novel section curated by Alessandro Piperno.
The first international guests were also revealed: the 2021 Nobel Prize winner for Literature Abdulrazak Gurnah, the Mexican writer Guadalupe Nettel, with her latest book Life Elsewhere, David Nicholls, writer, screenwriter and television author,
the Argentine Camila Sosa Villada for the first time in Italy.
Among the most anticipated of the Bookstock programme, dedicated to very young and very young readers - which remains a flagship of the Fair - there will be, for the first time at the Book Fair, Jeff Kinney, the New York Times bestselling author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.
"We are working to offer our visitors a usable, welcoming and renewed fair."
explains Silvio Viale, president of the Turin association, the City of the Book.
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