The third edition of ‘Ferrara meets publishing’, a University of Ferrara project dedicated to the world of publishing and its protagonists, opens on Wednesday 8 May. After Bompiani and Adelphi, guests of the two previous editions, this year the festival dedicates a special edition to books for children and teenagers. In fact, two of the most important and significant children’s publishing houses in Italy will be present on the stage of the former Teatro Verdi: Einaudi Ragazzi, a historic publishing house which this year celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation, and I Topipittori, winner of the latest edition of the Rodari Prize.
The meetings will see the two editors themselves as protagonists, Gaia Stock (Einaudi Ragazzi) and Giovanna Zoboli (I Topipittori) who, together with Michele Piumini (translator) and Anna De Giovanni (head of the Einaudi Ragazzi press office), will dialogue with the public, telling all the richness of one’s work. Furthermore, from this year the festival becomes even bigger. Two bookshops: Il Libraccio and La Pazienza Arti e Libri, have in fact joined the project with the creation of an ‘Extrafestival’ which will see numerous meetings and events dedicated to the two guest publishing houses.
“I am really happy that ‘Ferrara meets publishing’ is increasingly becoming a point of reference for the cultural life of the city – says Isabella Libertà Mattazzi, professor of the Department of Humanistic Studies of Unife and coordinator of the initiative – and I am very happy happy that in addition to the interest shown by our students, the project has been a great success in high schools and from this year also in elementary schools. Throughout the month of May the meetings at the former Verdi theater and those in the bookshop they will make Ferrara a city full of celebrating readers, I would say that we cannot wish for anything better. The two publishing houses protagonists of this edition are very different from each other. On one side there is Einaudi Ragazzi, a publishing giant on the 50th year of its foundation. On the other hand, we host I Topipittori, a niche publishing house that last year won the prestigious Rodari Award. Gaia Stock for Einaudi Ragazzi and Giovanna Zoboli for I Topipittori respectively. Also scheduled are speeches by the translator Michele Piumini, who will focus on the importance of the figure of the translator in publishing, and by Anna De Giovanni, from the Press Office of I Topipittori.
