Over 600 authors and more than 300 events in five days for Pordenonelegge (18-22 September), 43 meeting places between Pordenone, the centers of its province and the entire Friuli Venezia Giulia region, with stops in Trieste, Udine, Lignano. In its 25 years, the Book Festival also becomes the Festival of Freedom, to “browse” the themes of the present and read the changes in the world, testifying to the primary value of reading and writing, of knowledge as the key to consciously interpreting the present.
The Pordenonelegge festival, curated by Gian Mario Villalta with Alberto Garlini and Valentina Gasparet, opens “on the threshold of history” with the meeting that, on Wednesday 18 September, will feature Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi on the theme “In the beginning: creation and ecology”. And the festival remains on the threshold of our time, telling it live with the international voices of narrative and reflection: the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy will present his new essay on Israel in an Italian preview, and there will be the writer Eshkol Nevo, best seller with “Legami” about the “wounds” linked to the tragic 7 October between Israel and Palestine. At the festival the Iranian author Azar Nafisi who receives the Crédit Agricole Prize “History in a novel” 2024, the Ukrainian Oksana Zabužko and the journalist and author Sasha Vasilyuk, a native of Soviet Crimea, on the themes of the conflict that is shaking Europe. The presence of the American Richard Ford is extraordinary, previewing the last act of the saga by Frank Bascombe, and there will be the great Spanish authors Fernando Aramburu, Alicia Giménez-Bartlett and Angeles Caso.
The disruptive theme of Artificial Intelligence will be addressed by neuroscientist Manfred Spitzer and philosopher Miguel Benasayag; with their novelties in national preview, among others, the French writer François Bégaudeau, the German Daniel Schulz, the French philosopher Michel Onfray will arrive. And many other international authors: the Japanese Hiroko Oyamada, the Canadian Deborah Willis, the Nigerian Abi Daré, the British Gareth Rubin and Gillian McAllister, the Indian Janice Pariat, the Colombian Piedad Bonnett, the French Laurent Binet. The participation of the signatures of Italian narrative is vast and kaleidoscopic: from Corrado Augias to Gianrico Carofiglio, from Antonia Arslan to Chiara Valerio, from Donatella Di Pietrantonio to Rosella Postorino, Piergiorgio Paterlini, Maurizio Maggiani, Donato Carrisi, Matteo Bussola, Erica Mou, Felicia Kingsley, Giulia Caminito, Enrico Brizzi, Daria Bignardi, Helena Janeczek, Eraldo Affinati, Romana Petri, Filippo La Porta, Antonella Cilento, Enrico Galiano, Antonio Moresco, Andrea Maggi, Annalena Benini, Ivano Dionigi, Giorgio Zanchini, Lucio Luca, Susanna Tartaro, Angelo Carotenuto, Serena Bortone, Andrea Moro, Antonio Rezza, Giovanni Grasso, Giorgio Fontana, Luigi Panella, Giuseppe Antonelli. And the great dialogues of Pordenonelegge are back, in which Antonio Franchini and Dario Voltolini, Diego De Silva and Luigi Nacci, Marianna Corona and Mauro Corona, Ginevra Lamberti and Federica Manzon, Caterina Bonvicini and Alessandra Sarchi, Tullio Avoledo and Pier Paolo Di Mino, Sandra Petrignani and Alberto Rollo will confront each other, among others.
The quality of the meetings dedicated to history, science and philosophy will be of extraordinary depth: there will also be Umberto Galimberti, Massimo Recalcati, Massimo Cacciari, Vittorino Andreoli, Roberto Esposito, Maura Gancitano, Vera Gheno, Marco Aime, Marzio Breda, Marino Niola, Franco Cardini, Federico Fubini, Telmo Pievani, Antonella Viola, Elisabetta Moro and the cardiologist Gabriele Bronzetti.
Pordenonelegge projects itself into our time and gives voice, among others, to Federico Rampini, Aldo Cazzullo, Lilli Gruber, Mario Calabresi, Enrico Letta, Antonio Caprarica, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Dario Maltese, Francesco Costa, Massimo Franco, Father Antonio Spadaro, Luca Zaia, Antonio Polito, Carlo Cottarelli, Edmondo Bruti Liberati, Antonio Padellaro, Sigfrido Ranucci, Geert Mak, Stefano Allievi, Massimo Cirri, Stefania Andreoli, Oliviero Forti, Carlo Panella, Monica Maggioni, Massimiliano Ossini, Manuel Bortuzzo, Matteo Bordone, Pablo Trincia, Laura Curino, Daria Bonfietti, Stefano Feltri, Leonardo Becchetti, with a window dedicated to current sports events.
In the 2024 ‘Olympic’ there will also be Arrigo Sacchi, Federico Buffa and Fabrizio Gabrielli, Riccardo Pittis, Marino Bartoletti, Antonio Calabrò and Luigi Garlando. Poetry and attention to children’s books have always outlined two “festivals within the festival”, two vast programs included in the general program. More than 50 poets from all over Italy and the world will be at Pordenonelegge Poesia 2024, with the stage of the Premio Strega Poesia and with Antonella Anedda winner of the 4th edition of the Premio Umberto Saba, Gianfranco Lauretano, Milo De Angelis, Maurizio Cucchi, Marco Pelliccioli, Massimo Natale, Corrado Benigni, Davide Rondoni, Roberto Cescon, Laura Pugno, Francesca Serragnoli, the Croatian poets, Ivan Herceg and Davor Šalat, Scottish Gaelic poetry with Christopher Whyte and Miran Košuta. And the connection with poetry documentaries returns, including Parola di poeta. Autoritratto di Giovanni Raboni, twenty years after his death, with the participation of Patrizia Valduga.
The Pordenonelegge under 14 program will bring together a hundred voices: starting with the very young, with the symbolic relay of readings from Tutti i colori della pace by Gianni Rodari. There will be the protagonists of “Dear author, I am writing to you …” – Vichi De Marchi, Simone Saccucci, Federico Appel and Luca Malagoli and the Dutch author Yorick Goldewijk – and also, among others, Beatrice Masini, Lodovica Cima, Teresa Porcella, Enrico Galiano, Chiara Carminati, Sualzo, Federico Taddia, Rico Hop, Chiara Lico, Luigi Garlando, Daniele Aristarco, Gigliola Alvisi, Armando Massarenti, Laura Pezzino, Manlio Castagna, Alberto Pellai, Barbara Tamborini, Flavio Soriga.
At Pordenonelegge, entertainment and art intertwine with reading and writing: Alessandro Bergonzoni and Davide Toffolo, among others, will talk about it, among the protagonists of the special episode of Fahrenheit Rai Radio 3, which will be broadcast from Pordenonelegge to celebrate together the 25th anniversary of the show and the festival, as well as Roby Facchinetti, Alberto Crespi, Farian Sabahi, Marco Anzovino, Bruno Bozzetto, Angela Vettese, Corrado Benigni and Davide Rondoni, Sonia Cavicchioli and Fulvio Dell’Agnese, Erik Kessels, Chiara Alessi and Leonardo Sonnoli, Nicolas Ballario, Annalisa Avon and Marco Mulazzani. And the Orchestra del Friuli Venezia Giulia will seal the 25th edition of Pordenonelegge, with its concert.