To celebrate the 10th edition of the Festival of Italian literature and culture in Paris 'Italissimo', the Italian Ambassador Emanuela D'Alessandro met today in the prestigious Sala del Guardi of our diplomatic headquarters with a representation of the protagonists of the important event, including the Festival Director, Fabio Gambaro, the President of the Italian Publishers' Association, Innocenzo Cipolletta, the writers Milena Agus, Viola Ardone, Alessandro Baricco, Gianrico Carofiglio, Donatella Di Pietrantonio, Fabio Fiori, Michela Marzano, Vanni Santoni and Emanuele Trevi, the artist Lorenzo Mattotti who signed the manifesto, and the heads of French publishing houses and the Festival's partners and sponsors.
Launched in 2016 and then held every year in one week in April, Italissimo has rapidly established itself as the main event for promoting Italian literature in France and a much-awaited appointment in the French capital's very rich cultural agenda, offering the opportunity to meet the most representative authors of our country's publishing scene and widely read beyond the Alps, as well as to discover the new voices of Italian literature recently translated into French. The Festival has also always encouraged dialogue: between literature and the other arts, between Italian and French culture, between the publishing industries of the two countries.
In a decade, there have been more than 300 Italian and French guests, 260 events on the programme including meetings, readings, shows and screenings, around 20 Parisian institutional and cultural venues that have hosted them, and around 30 partners and sponsors, public and private, Italian and French, starting with the Embassy itself. From 2021, the Festival will also hold an autumn edition in Lyon. The consecration of Italissimo's success came in 2023 with the unification of its programme with that of Italy's participation as guest of honour at the Paris Book Festival, and in 2024 with the awarding of the prestigious 'Prix de l'Initiative Européenne'.
"Italissimo is a virtuous example of how literature and publishing play a leading role in the intensification of the cultural dialogue between Italy and France and how working as a system brings a strong added value to the promotion of Italy abroad," said Ambassador D'Alessandro meeting the protagonists of the tenth edition of the Festival. 'The presence in Paris these days of some of the most representative voices of contemporary Italian literature,' she added, 'testifies to the recognition by French readers of the excellence of our literary production.
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