23-26 May 2024 Palace of Culture and Science and plac Defilad

Pietro Luca Azzaro is a professor at the Università cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan, Department of Political Sciences, where he teaches “History of Political Thought” and “Russia – Eastern Europe: history and politics”. He is known to the general public for his deep knowledge about pope Benedict XVI: since 5rjjjjnn2007 he has been editing and translating the Italian edition of his Opera omnia, on behalf of Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Beyond national borders, he works in Lebanon, where he is a member of the executive board of Benedict XVI’s chair at the Notre Dame University of Beirut, and in Germany, where he collaborates with the Görres-Gesellschaft of Bonn, one of the most ancient German academic institutions of Christian inspiration. He is a member of the Ratzinger Schülerkreis, a group of Ratzinger’s pupils, and the executive assistant of Ratzinger Vatican Foundation. His relationship with Poland comes to light notably with Sulle ali della libertà. Fede e solidarietà: insieme fanno miracoli (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2011), a work he has written together with former President of Poland and Nobel Prize for Peace laureate Lech Wałęsa. He also works with Pázmány Péter Catholic University of Budapest: this collaborations leaded to the creation of a volume about the situation in Central-eastern Europe in the aftermath of the fall of Berlin Wall (Pierluca Azzaro/Làszlò Gajer, The economic, social and spiritual situation of central and eastern Europe in the light of the Social catholic thought, Lateran University Press, 2021).

Meet the author at the Warsaw International Book Fair
23.05.2024, at 16:00, Goethe Hall, Palace of Culture and Science

Alessandro Baldacci is a professor of Italian contemporary literature at the University of Warsaw. He is an expert in poetry, a critic and an author. Through essays and monographs he has proposed accurate analysis and accurate portraits of some of the main characters of twentieth-century Italian poetry and literature, from Amelia Rosselli (Una disarmonia perfetta, Laterza, 2007) to Andrea Zanzotto (La passione della poesia, Liguori Editore, 2010) as well as Giorgio Caproni (L’inquietudine in versi, Franco Cesati Editore, 2016) and Milo De Angelis (Le voragini del lirico, Mimesis, 2020), not to mention explorations and comparisons with English literature in works as Le vertigini dell’io (Ipermedium Libri, 2010), about Beckett, Bachmann and Manganelli’s trio and La necessità del tragico (Transeuropa, 2014). His poetic debut happened in recent years with Il dio di Norimberga, a polysemic work divided in five sections, published by peQuod last year and nominated for the European Strega Prize 2024.

Meet the author at the Warsaw International Book Fair
24.05.2024, at 14:00, Goethe Hall, Palace of Culture and Science

He is a writer for both children and adults, among the most beloved in Italy, a doctor with a psychoanalytic training, a school supervisor and the author of characters and TV animation series. Luigi Ballerini devotes himself to many things, always chasing the one he loves the most: guiding young people with every possible means. He does it, for example, by discussing educational issues on the major newspapers, by meeting parents, teachers and children at school and by writing for all of them, navigating easily across genres. He has been translated into more than twenty languages and he has written more than thirty novels, among which some that have received important recognitions in Italy and abroad. Above all others, La signorina Euforbia, published by San Paolo in 2014 and in Poland the same year under the title of Cukierenka Panny Euforbii, won the Andersen Award. His novel Io sono Zero, published by Il Castoro in 2015 and three years later by Nasza Ksiegarnia (Mam na imie Zero), won the Bancarellino Prize. Many best-selling books that he wrote started a new genre, the so-called nowtopian, a light dystopia, set in the near future, where technology seems to control our lives but where humas don’t lose their power of changing the course of events. Since 2019 he is the director of Flannery O’Connor Children Writing School of the Cultural Center of Milan, the city where he lives.

His last book translated into Polish is Wróć do mnie, Butterfly, 2019.

Meet the author at the Warsaw International Book Fair
24.05.2024, at 12:00, Goethe Hall, Palace of Culture and Science

Famous people all have fans but only one of them has vassals. The most beloved historian in Italy has a web site whose administrators call themselves I vassalli di Barbero, so strong is the charm of their idol. Barbero is specialized in Medieval history and military history, he is a collaborator and TV presenter and he devotes himself both to divulgation and to narrative, with equal success. As regards novels, his debut was in 1995 with Bella vita e guerre altrui di Mr. Pyle (Mondadori), awarded the Strega Prize in 1996 and the first of a group of nine books (the last one was released in 2023, Brick for stone, Sellerio); as regards essays, there are some actual bestsellers, such as Caporetto (2017) and All’arme! All’arme! I priori fanno carne! (2023, both published by Laterza). Dante (Laterza, 2020, published in Poland under the same title two years later by Marginesy) is also a bestseller and it is dedicated to the Sommo Poeta, a man we know better than anyone else of his time, but Barbero’s expertise manage to put him under a whole new light, intriguing and irresistible. As are his lessons, which are always very attended, whether they are in-person, online or in the form of podcasts.

His last book translated into Polish is Dante, Marginesy, 2022.

Meet the author at the Warsaw International Book Fair
25.05.2024, at 15:00, Main Stage, Tent F, pl. Defilad in front of the Kinoteka

Perugia, Lecce and Rome are the three centers around which Massimo Borghesi’s academic career revolves. He graduated in 1974 with a dissertation about Hegel at the University of Perugia, where he currently teaches Moral Philosophy. He is an associate professor of History of Moral Philosophy (Facoltà di Magistero, 1992-1996) at the University of Lecce. He lives in Rome where he has taught Aesthetics, Ethics, Philosophical Theology at the Pontifical University of St. Bonaventure and, from 2008 to 2017, Philosophy and religion at the Pontifical Urban University. He is part of a scientific council, a coordinator and an advisor for many publishing companies. During the eleven years of Jorge Mario Bergoglio pontificate, he has dedicated to the pope three volumes, published in Italy by Jaca Book. The first one, Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Una biografia intellettuale (2017), has been translated into several languages, among them Polish: thanks to the four interviews he did with the pope, Borghesi provides an accurate and original reconstruction of his intellectual education, which led him to face the great challenges of Church in the globalization era.

His last book translated into Polish is Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Biografia intelektualna, Bratni Zew, 2018.

Meet the author at the Warsaw International Book Fair
23.05.2024, at 16:00, Goethe Hall, Palace of Culture and Science

He is a professor of History of Political Theories at the University of Perugia, the director of the Institute of Politics and of the quarterly magazine “Rivista di politica”, an author and editor of volumes, translations and collections of writings by Raymond Aron, Julien Freund, Carl Schmitt, Niccolò Machiavelli and Benito Mussolini. Alessandro Campi has devoted his life to the study of political thought, notably to the tradition of Political realism, the analysis of 20^th century totalitarian regimes and to the investigation of subjects, writers and movements representative of Italian and European Right-wing politics. Some of his most recent works include L’ombra lunga del fascismo (Solferino, 2022, co-written with Sergio Rizzo), Trasformazioni della politica (Rubbettino, 2022) – from the title of the well-known essay by Vilfredo Pareto written in 1921 –, Il fantasma della nazione (Marsilio, 2023) which retraces the path of Right-wing politics in Italy from the early 20^th century to the present day, and the latest publication, Machiavelliana. Immagini, percorsi, interpretazioni (Rubbettino, 2024).

His last book translated into Polish is Niccolò Machiavelli o spiskach. Walka o władzę we Włoszech epoki odrodzenia, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Pedagogicznego, 2021.

Meet the author at the Warsaw International Book Fair
26.05.2024, at 12:00, Kisielewski Hall, Palace of Culture and Science

Born in Rome and currently living in Milan, Andrea Colamedici is a philosopher, publisher, director and theatre actor, philosophy teacher for children, popularizer and even more. His name is synonymous with inclusive and plural contemporaneity, imagination, wonder, and it is linked to Maura Gancitano, wife and partner in many of his projects. Starting with Tlon, founded in 2015 and which includes a philosophy school, a publishing house, bookshops, courses, podcasts and festivals.  An expert in mixing high and low culture and in combining academic and pop world, Colamedici makes a virtue out of hybrid and he is held in high esteem by other famous international philosophers. From lectures in many universities all over the world, to TEDX conferences about AI; from the lectureship in Social Media Theory at IULM in Milan, to Prendiamola con Filosofia, an educational marathon organized on the request of the Ministry of Health; from a specialist program about philosophy on Vanity Fair, to many podcasts. As regards books, his last publication, co-written with Gancitano, is Ma chi me lo fa fare? Come il lavoro ci ha illuso: la fine dell’incantesimo (HarperCollins, 2023).

His last book translated into Polish is Spójrz na to filozoficznie, Galaktyka, 2022.

Meet the author at the Warsaw International Book Fair
25.05.2024, at 13:00, Kijev Hall, Palace of Culture and Science

Mattia Corrente grew up in Librizzi, a small village in the province of Messina, in Sicily, where he is still living and which overlooks the wonderful landscape of the Aeolian Islands. Lipari, Salina, Vulcano and above all Stromboli: Corrente is closely linked with this island because of his love for the stories told by the fishermen and because of the house of Anna and Severino, the main characters of La fuga di Anna (Sellerio, 2022), his debut novel, praised in Italy and abroad, and published in Poland a few days ago, under the title of Ucieczka Anny (bo.wiem, 2024). The plot, a sort of inverted Odyssey, is a successful excuse to talk about a luxuriant and powerful Sicily, described beyond any stereotype. Corrente’s writing is accurate and precise but at the same time full of references and he promotes the dialect as the authentic language. Corrente graduated in Philosophy and Human Studies and he is a ghostwriter at publishing houses. His second novel, published last April by Salani, is Cronache dell’Ade, a surprising mix of science fiction, mythology and dystopia, which stands out in the literary universe for children and teenagers.

His last book translated into Polish is Ucieczka Anny, bo.wiem, 2024.

Meet the author at the Warsaw International Book Fair
26.05.2024, at 13:00, Main Stage, Tent F, pl. Defilad in front of the Kinoteka

A publisher and a journalist, he was born in Perugia in 1960 and he has studied Physics. He has worked as a reporter for “L’Espresso” and as a presenter on the Italian TV news (TG5) before realizing that journalism, especially on TV, is so much full of tragedies and negative events to devote his entire life to it. Therefore, since 2002 he has been filling up Italian bookshops with works for children and teenagers, covering every literary genre, thanks to the publishing house which he founded and that bears his name. Over the years his publications have broadened to reach also adults, because “our readers grow, children have become teenagers, teenagers have become adults, and we still want to accompany them with our books”. Gallucci offers an extended and varied proposal, with a special attention to quality and to the dialogue with young readers. Gallucci lives in Rome, where he is also responsible for the Children Commission of the Italian Association of Publishers.

Meet the publisher and journalist at the Warsaw International Book Fair
23.05.2024, at 14:00, Goethe Hall, Palace of Culture and Science

She is a philosopher and a writer, a publisher and a columnist, an author of podcasts and a contributor to newspapers, a popularizer and an activist.

It is almost impossible to define the feminine forms through which Maura Gancitano expresses her talent, as is often the case with people whose vocation is looking forward. “Vanity Fair” in Italy, France and Spain has put her on the list “Future Generation”, among the innovators who are tracing the future of Europe. Gancitano’s journey starts from Mazara del Vallo, where she was born in 1985, it continues with a graduation in Philosophy at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan and it is intertwined with the journey of Andrea Colamedici, her partner in work and in life, with whom she founded Tlon in 2015, a project of cultural education and a publishing house. Together with him she is also the author of the podcast Pensare Europeo, in collaboration with the European Parliament, and of many essays, among them Prendila con filosofia. Manuale di fioritura personale (HarperCollins, 2021), translated into Polish by Galaktyka in 2022.

Her last book translated into Polish is Spójrz na to filozoficznie, Galaktyka, 2022.

Meet the author at the Warsaw International Book Fair
25.05.2024, at 13:00, Kijev Hall, Palace of Culture and Science

Helena Janeczek was born in Munich from Jewish parents of Polish origin and she has been living in Italy since she was eighteen years old. She is a poet and a writer and she made her debut with a collection of poems written in German, Ins Freie (Suhrkamp, 1989). She has chosen Italian for her narrative debut: Lezioni di tenebra (Mondadori, 1997), awarded in 1998 the Bagutta Prize as the best first work. In this book she deals with the subject of the transmission of memory, starting from her autobiographical experience. History and personal experience are the center of her most famous novel, La ragazza con la Leica (Guanda, 2017), a biography of photo reporter Gerda Taro, killed during the Spanish Civil War in the thirties. In 2018 this novel was awarded the Strega, the Bagutta and the Selezione Campiello Prize, and then it has been translated into several languages, among them Polish (published under the title Fotografka in 2021 by Prószyński). With her last work, Il tempo degli imprevisti (Guanda, 2024), Janeczek returns to an accurate and obsessive investigation of History, presented through the narration of the lives it overwhelms.

Her last book translated into Polish is Fotografka, Prószyński, 2021.

Meet the author at the Warsaw International Book Fair
23.05.2024, at 15:00, Goethe Hall, Palace of Culture and Science

In Manzon’s novels the sea is always a central character. There is the Greek sea, in her first novel Come si dice addio (Mondadori, 2008) and above all, there is the sea of Trieste, a city for which she has an obsession, even though she “can’t claim any birthright or blood right, only a love without reasons”. A powerful and dark logic that leads to an equal and opposite outcome: the clear urgence to write about it, from Di fama e di sventura (Mondadori, 2011) to Il bosco del confine (Aboca, 2020), by way of La nostalgia degli altri (2017), until the last publication Alma (2024, both by Feltrinelli), where the beautiful city of gulf, history and border, is shining and giving the light to the characters and the virtuosity of the author, who is always committed to answering its call. Manzon is the editorial director of Guanda since January 2023 and behind her back there is a solid path in the world of the publishing industry, which includes a long experience as an editor in the Italian and foreign narrative section in Mondadori and an experience as director of educational activities at the Holden in Turin, a writing school founded by Alessandro Baricco.

Meet the author at the Warsaw International Book Fair
26.05.2024, at 14:00, Goethe Hall, Palace of Culture and Science