After the double round of voting by the Italian and American juries, the tenth edition of the literary competition which promotes cultural exchange between our country and the USA has reached its climax: the Executive Committee of The Bridge Prize has announced the 2025 winners for the Fiction and Non-Fiction categories. ‘Our’ award winners are Nicoletta Verna with ‘I giorni di Vetro’ (Einaudi) for Fiction and Giulio Ferroni with ‘Nature Near and Far. Humanism and the environment from the ancient Greeks to artificial intelligence’ (The Ship of Theseus) for non-fiction. The American winners are Julia Phillips with ‘Bear’ (Penguin Random House) for Fiction and Aaron Robertson with ‘The Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America’ (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) for Non-Fiction. The four authors will be awarded a contribution towards the costs of Italian/English and English/Italian translation of their works.
Appointment for the Awards Ceremony on December 4th at 5.00 pm in the headquarters of the Center for American Studies in Rome in Via Michelangelo Caetani 32, in the presence of the winning authors, the management of The Bridge, the representatives of the juries and the institutions that support it. The following day the four winners will be at the Più libri liberi fair in Rome, at 12.30 in the Giove Hall, at the La Nuvola Convention Center. On 13 April 2026, the winners will finally be the protagonists of a meeting at the headquarters of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York as part of the days dedicated to The Bridge Award in the tenth anniversary year.
Aimed at promoting knowledge and encouraging the reading of some of the best recent fiction and non-fiction publications from the two countries and at promoting the spread of the Italian language by supporting its circulation in the American publishing and university world, The Bridge is conceived and edited by Maria Ida Gaeta, who has organized it since the first edition in collaboration with Maria Gliozzi. The Italian Cultural Institute of New York and the Unitarian Italian Writers Federation (FUIS) are currently the main supporters of the recognition, together with the contribution of a private American donor.
The Award also benefits from the precious collaboration of the American Academy in Rome, the Center for American Studies in Rome and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. Over the years, the Prize has been supported by the Embassy of the United States of America in Rome, the Center for Books and Reading of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage in Italy (CEPELL), the Center for Italian Modern Art (CIMA) in New York, the Italian Embassy and the Institute of Culture in Washington, the Italian Consulate General in New York, the Center For Fiction in NY (which has acted as the Managing Body of the Prize over the years 2019-2021) and other Italian and American cultural institutions and universities.
The 20 books nominated in 2025
Italian-Fiction section:
- Stop Anechoum, Tangerinn, e/o
- Teresa Ciabatti, Donnaregina, Mondadori
- Giovanni Greco, The club 27, Ponte alle Grazie
- Federica Manzon, Alma, Feltrinelli
- Nicoletta Verna, I Giorni di Vetro, Einaudi Stile Libero
Italian section-Non-fiction:
- Giulio Ferroni, Nature near and far. Humanism and the environment from the ancient Greeks to artificial intelligence, The Ship of Theseus
- Anna Foa, Israel’s suicide, Laterza
- Roberta Mori, Waking up as adults. Life of Sandro Delmastro, partisan and friend of Primo Levi, Einaudi
- Matteo Nucci, He dreamed of lions. The fragile heroism of Ernest Hemingway, Harper Collins Italia
- Paolo Pecere, The sense of nature. Seven paths to the Earth, Sellerio
American section-Fiction:
- Georgia Jeffries: The Younger Girl, Mission Point Press
- Kevin Holohan: So You Wanna Run a Country?, Akashic Books
- Julia Phillips: Bear, Penguin Random House (Hogarth)
- Ledia Xhoga: Misinterpretation, Tin House Books
- Cynthia Zarin: Winter, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
American section-Non-Fiction:
- Robert G. Morrison , Merchant of Knowledge, Stanford University Press
- Karen T. Raizen, Pulcinella’s Brood: Popular Culture in the Enlightenment, University of Toronto Press
- Aaron Robertson, The Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Julia Rombough, A Veil of Silence: Women and Sound in Renaissance Italy, Harvard University Press
- Jane Tylus, Who Owns Literature? Early Modernity’s Orphaned Texts Cambridge Elements (Cambridge University Press)