The writer, historian and diplomat Maurizio Serra, the only Italian elected in the prestigious circle of the Immortels of the Académie Française, the second edition of the literary prize ‘Alberto Arbasino’, established by the municipal administration of Voghera (Pavia) as a recognition of a personality of Italian culture which, through his books and his work, can be combined with the great writer and journalist Alberto Arbasino, goes to the writer and diplomatic. (1930-2020).
Exactly five years after his death, the Arbasino Prize is awarded to Maurizio Serra “for his vast literary activity – which includes monographic publications dedicated to Curzio Malaparte (Prix Gouncort Biography 2011), Italo Svevo and Gabriele D’Annunzio (Prix Chateaubriand 2018, Prix de l’Académie Deslittératures 2019) – and in particular for the last sagge ‘Chess to peace. crucial of history, which presents significant assonances with the time we live in “.
The reasons for the conferment were made public today by the jury of the prize chaired by the writer Giorgio Montefoschi and composed of the literary and historical critic of literature Andrea Cortellessa, by the essayist and literary critic Raffaele Manica, by the secretary of the company Dante Alighieri Alessandro Masi, by the writer and journalist Michele Masneri, by the writer Elisabetta Rasy.
With an edition that is therefore projected in the current affairs of our time, the Arbasino 2025 award will culminate in the delivery ceremony scheduled for Saturday 12 April, at the Valentino Garavani Theater in Voghera, at 6 pm. The highest local authorities will speak and to do the honors will be the mayor of Voghera, Paola Garlaschelli. The event will conduct the director Massimiliano Finazzer Flory, in his role as an artistic director of the prize which this year is also imposed on the Schools section and the website www.premiarbasino.it, which will become a bridge between generations.
Paola Garlaschelli explains: “The second edition of the Alberto Arbasino Prize represents for Voghera a cultural moment of great value. It is an opportunity to renew our tribute to an intellectual who has been able to tell our time with style, irony and depth, leaving an indelible sign in Italian culture and in the memory of our city. This year we have chosen to contact young people, involving schools in a path that invites you to a path that invites you to the Language. The theme we wanted to propose is the word weak ‘, an invitation to question the profound meaning of words, on those expressions that, with daily use, have consumed, losing strength, authenticity and communication skills. Neutrals: they build our way of thinking, of living, of relating to us “.
“We strongly believe that culture must be a bridge between generations, a meeting place between past and future – added Paola Garlaschelli – and who better than young people can restore energy to the words, transforming them into tools of authentic expression and responsibility? I thank in particular the president of the Montefoschi jury for choosing to accompany us with authority in our path. The Arbasino Prize is confirmed as a high -profile appointment, capable of combining critical reflection. We will have the pleasure of rewarding the winning students of the school prize and following the national winner of the second edition of the Arbasino Prize, selected by a jury of the highest level.
And right tomorrow, Wednesday 2 April, the essay “Chess at Peace. Monaco 1938” will be presented in Rome, at the headquarters of the Dante Alighieri company at Palazzo Firenze, at 5.30 pm. With the author Maurizio Serra, the secretary general of the Dante Alighieri company Alessandro Masi, the jury president of the Arbasino Prize and writer Giorgio Montefoschi, the journalist Pier Luigi Vercesi, special envoy of the “Corriere della Sera” will speak. The book analyzes the appeasement conference held in Munich from 29 to 30 September 1938: a meeting that changed the fate of Europe, marking the annexation of the Czechoslovak territories of the Sudeti to Nazi Germany. Serra, through a compelling and well documented narrative, highlights the political and diplomatic dynamics that led to the capitulation of democracies to totalitarianism, causing the world in the Second World War.
Ambassador of Italy to rest and academic of France, Maurizio Serra wrote about fifteen books on the culture of the twentieth century. Among these “Malaparte. Lives and legends” (Marsilio, 2012), “L’Amaginifico. Vita di Gabriele D’Annunzio” (Neri Pozza 2019), and “The Mussolini case” (Neri Pozza, 2021). For his entire work, he was awarded in 2018 of the Prince Pierre de Monaco and in 2020 he received the International Viareggio-Versilia Prize. Serra is also the winner of the first edition of the L’Officina del Vittoriale Prize, a new recognition established by the Il Vittoriale degli Italiani di Gardone Riviera (Brescia) Foundation, who will receive on Saturday 5 April, at 5.00 pm.