Helena Janeczek & Milena Agus
Distinguished guests at the Passa Porta Festival! Milena Agus and Helena Janeczek, two winners of the prestigious Premio Strega, are two grandes dames of Italian literature. The two prominent writers will read from their work and engage in a conversation with Paolo Grossi.
Snapshot of an exceptional woman
Helena Janeczek more than rightly won the Premio Strega in 2018, the most prestigious Italian literary prize, for La ragazza con la Leica. The girl is Gerda Taro, the first war photographer to die on the job and the strong woman behind Endre Friedmann – aka Robert Capa, an alias behind which both Friedman and Taro hid. With La ragazza con la Leica, Janeczek has written a poetic, historical novel about love, war and photography.
Sardinian literary spring
A new literary wind blew over Sardinia in the 1980s. A generation of writers on the Italian island took a new thematic and stylistic road, garnering international success as a result. Milena Agus is one of the most important voices of this Sardinian literary spring. Her international breakthrough novel, Mal di pietre, an intimate Italian family account, won a series of prizes and was translated into five languages. The French film adaptation Mal de pierres, with Marion Cotillard in the lead, was in competition for the Golden Palm at the Cannest Film Festival in 2016.
Helena Janeczek (b. 1964) was born in Munich and moved to Italy in the 1980s. She is the editor of the literary magazine Nuovi Argomenti. It is with La ragazza con la Leica, her sixth novel, that she broke through on the international stage.
Milena Agus (b. 1955) was born in Genoa and now lives in Cagliari on Sardinia, where she teaches history and Italian. Two English translations of her work have been published: From the Land of the Moon and While the Shark Is Sleeping.
book signing
Helena Janeczek & Milena Agus will sign their books at 11:30 in De Markten. Books will also be for sale at the signing. Italian versions will be available!
Passa Porta, De Bezige Bij, Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Bruxelles, Piola Libri, De Markten
photo Milena Agus © Daniele Zelda
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