Mandrarossa Prize, 93 books to tell the Sicily you don’t expect

Ninety-three books, 54 publishing houses, 37 bookstores and eight overall awards. The Mandrarossa Literary Award presents the applications for the 2026 edition and confirms its vocation: to tell “the Sicily you don’t expect”, intertwining literature, territory, wine culture and valorization of independent bookstores.

The prize will involve the bookstores of the cities that have been Italian capitals of culture from 2015 to today, from Mantua to Palermo, from Parma to Procida, from Bergamo and Brescia to Pesaro, Agrigento and L’Aquila, together with the finalists for 2026, the Italian European Capitals of Culture and Rome, Milan and Naples.

Added to these are some independent Italian bookstores abroad, in Barcelona, ​​Boston, Marseille and Paris. A part of the copies sent by the publishers will be destined for the jurors, the organization’s archive, the creation of a Prize library in the company winery and to a book fund to enrich the municipal library of Niscemi or other libraries indicated by the group of Sicilian authors Gli Olmi.

The main section, Narrative Mandrarossaincludes an absolute first prize, a second and a third place. The candidate titles include ‘The Guardian’ by Niccolò Ammaniti, ‘La Carità Carnale’ by Monica Acito, ‘Convitati di pietra’ by Michele Mari, ‘Tutto il mio folli amore’ by Francesco Carofiglio, ‘L’alba dei leoni’ by Stefania Auci, ‘La midwife’ by Bibbiana Cau, ‘The family idiot’ by Dario Ferrari and ‘The grammar of white’ by Angelo Carotenuto.

Alongside narrative, the prize is divided into five thematic sectionseach symbolically linked to a Mandrarossa label: Giallo-Cavadiserpe, Fable/Fantasy-Bertolino Soprano, First Work-Calamossa, Historical Novel-Cartagho and Environment/Landscape-Urra di Mare.

In the giallo competing, among others, Francesco Musolino with ‘Giallo Lipari’, Massimo Carlotto with ‘A esequie avvenire’, Piergiorgio Pulixi with ‘The crow’s nest’, Barbara Baraldi with ‘The tarot murders’, Walter Veltroni with ‘Buonvino and the murder of the boys’, Daniele Mencarelli with ‘Four presumed family members’ and Antonio Manzini with ‘Under lies bare’.

The section Fairytale/Fantasy collects titles such as ‘Blood of the Immortals’ by Melania Muscas, ‘Woman of Peace’ by Liliana Segre and Daniela Palumbo, ‘The Fisherman of Stars’ by Peppe Millanta and ‘The Restorer of Worlds’ by Mattia Corrente.

For theFirst work among others, ‘Marea’ by Laura Nicchiarelli, ‘The Miracle’ by Lorenza Sabatino, ‘Anna Non Forget’ by Adriano Giotti, ‘My Last Story for You’ by Sofia Assante and ‘Selenide’ by Marta Cristofanini are candidates.

In the Historical novel appear ‘The Little Girl’ by Valeria Parrella, ‘The Orange Enchantress’ by Barbara Bellomo, ‘La vita semper’ by Elena Varvello, ‘The Lionesses of the Virgin Mary’ by Vanessa Ambrosecchio, ‘Dawn of the Lions’ by Stefania Auci and ‘The Sower of Courage’ by Antonella Giuffrè.

The section Environment/Paesology instead, it puts into competition works such as ‘Breve storia del clima in Italia’ by Luca Mercalli, ‘The world without winter’ by Bruno Arpaia, ‘Uniti per la vita’ by Telmo Pievani and Guido Casiraghi, ‘Il cantico della terra’ by Stefano Mancuso, ‘Caro Sapiens’ by Mario Tozzi and ‘Uccidere la natura’ by Stefania Divertito.

The applications will be evaluated a technical jury chaired by Concita De Gregorio and composed of Franco Cardini, Neria De Giovanni, Eleonora Lombardo, Carlo Alberto Moretti, Christian Rocca and Nadia Terranova. The jury will select finalists and winners from the proposals received from bookstores. The awards ceremony is scheduled for 25 July 2026 in the Selinunte archaeological park, in the Temple of Hera. Following this, the Mandrarossa Prize will offer the show Madre by Concita De Gregorio with Melania Petriello, a theatrical story about motherhood, bonds and identity.