Vita gazette – The 22nd edition of the Rome International Literature Festival started yesterday evening. The Palatine Stadium hosts one of the most beloved summer cultural festivals in the Capital.

Celebrating its 22nd year, the International Literature Festival brings together esteemed Italian and international authors who have significantly contributed to contemporary literature. This year’s event will span over five evenings: July 3rd, 5th, 9th, 11th, and 13th.

Entitled La memoria del mondo (The Memory of the World), the festival pays tribute to Italo Calvino, commemorating his 100th birthday. The theme explores the universe’s origin through contemporary narratives, reflecting on the transmission of knowledge and literature.

This year the story of the Festival also passes through an image that bears the signature of the illustrator Laura Riccioli. A young woman dressed in a colourful dress takes momentum from the ruins of Palatine Hill, almost touching the moon, with the lightness and aspiration to the future present in the writer’s idea of the world.

The program, curated by Simona Cives, head of the Casa delle Letterature, benefits from the expertise of a distinguished committee, including Paolo Di Paolo, Melania Mazzucco, Davide Orecchio, Igiaba Scego, and Nadia Terranova. The evening format includes readings of unpublished literary works, in which international authors will creatively interpret the festival’s theme through a captivating blend of words, images, and sounds. Accompanying the readings are contemporary circus artists and acrobats who will bring Calvino’s words to life through their imaginative performances.

The Istituzione Biblioteche di Roma organises the festival in collaboration with the city and the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo.

Situated on the eastern side of the Domus Flavia-Augustana, but at about 10 metres below it, the Palatine Stadium was built by Emperor Domitian in the late first century AD.

All Letterature events are free of charge but must be booked in advance, subject to availability.

Below is the program for the 2023 Festival delle Letterature.

July 3

Luigi Lo Cascio reads The Memory of The World

Fernando Aramburu
Memoria del libro olvidado

Julie Otsuka
Yellow World

Jean-Baptiste Del Amo
Des cœurs battants

Giacomo Costantini / Circo El Grito
Performance of Argentine boleadoras and acrobats

July 5

Margaret Atwood
Impatient Griselda

Paolo Giordano
Turista per sempre

Valeria Luiselli
A veces, todavÍa, a través

Anton Monastyrsky
Acrohula hop

July 9

Vincitrice/Vincitore Premio Strega
Jeanette Winterson
Measure of all things

Burhan Sönmez
The memory of the world

Katja Petrowskaja
Das Foto schaute mich an

Valeriya Davydenko
Contortion

July 11

Bernardo Zannoni
Lo specchio della mente

Sam Riviere
A True Account of Talking to Du Fu at Vesuvio’s

William T. Vollmann
Memories of the world

Paolo Locci / Brigata Totem
Chinese Pole

July 13

David Diop
Michel Adanson et la mémoire du monde

Maaza Mengiste
La memoria del mondo

Nicola Lagioia
Liberi dalle catene

Barbara Fiorenza e Claudio Ladisa
Aerial acrobatics

3, 5, 9, 11, 13 July 2023

Stadio Palatino, Parco Archeologico del Colosseo

Via di San Gregorio, 30

Entry at 8.30pm, readings start at 9pm

Free Entry

No booking required

culture.roma.it/festivaldelleletteratur