Campiello, Roberto Cicutto president of the Jury of Writers

Alongside president Cicutto, the Jury of Literary Writers welcomes three new entries this year: Matteo Caccia, author and radio host known for his storytelling projects, Stefano Mancuso, world-renowned scientist and popularizer, director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology, and Alessandra Tedesco, journalist for Radio 24-Il Sole 24 Ore and presenter of the literary column ‘Il hunter of books’.

The Il Campiello Foundation, with a press release, expressed “deep gratitude” to the outgoing president Giorgio Zanchini “for the dedication and competence demonstrated at the helm of the Jury. Special thanks also go to the jurors Federico Bertoni and Silvia Calandrelli for the important contribution offered in previous editions”.

The other members of the Literary Jury of the 64th edition of the Campiello Prize are: Alessandro Beretta, journalist and literary critic; Daniela Brogi, professor of contemporary Italian literature at the University for Foreigners of Siena; Daria Galateria, professor of French literature at La Sapienza University of Rome; Rita Librandi, professor emerita of Italian Linguistics; Liliana Rampello, literary critic and essayist; Stefano Salis, responsible for the Comments and Sunday pages of Sole 24 Ore; Lorenzo Tomasin, professor of Romance Philology at the University of Lausanne; and Roberto Vecchioni, singer-songwriter, writer and university professor.

With the definition of the Literary Jury, the 64th edition of the Campiello Prize officially begins. Novels published for the first time in volume between 1 May 2025 and 30 April 2026 and regularly on the market are eligible to participate. Neither non-fiction, nor poetry, nor works translated into Italian from other languages ​​are admitted to the competition. On May 29, 2026, the Literati Jury will meet in Padua to select the five finalists and announce the First Work Award. The winner of the 64th edition of the Campiello Prize, indicated by the Jury of three hundred anonymous readers, will be proclaimed on Saturday 3 October at the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido of Venice.

The Campiello Prize, established in 1962 by the Industrialists of the Veneto, is promoted and managed by the Il Campiello Foundation, made up of the Industrial Associations of the Veneto and their regional Federation. It is one of the few successful cases in Italy of a concrete and strategic connection between the world of business and culture, gaining recognition as one of the most important Italian literary competitions. Over the years, the Campiello Prize has developed into many other initiatives and awards at the service of literature and culture with the aim of involving an increasingly wider audience in this important cultural operation: from Campiello Giovani, the competition aimed at young writers in its 31st edition this year, to Campiello Junior, dedicated to children’s fiction and founded in 2021 in collaboration with the Pirelli Foundation. (by Paolo Martini)