Mondadori is the publishing house that has had the most success at the Strega Prize with 23 victories. First among the regions to which the winners belong, Lazio with 15 triumphs. This is according to the map drawn by a study by the Preply platform proposed two days before the final evening of the 78th edition of the most prestigious Italian literary award, on July 4 at the Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome, where six finalist books will compete for victory. Mondadori is the publishing house that has won the most titles at the Strega Prize for works such as ‘Come Dio comanda’ by Niccolò Ammaniti (2001), ‘La solitudine dei numeri primi’ by Paolo Giordano (2008) and ‘Non ti muovere’ by Margaret Mazzantini (2002). Einaudi follows at different distances with 15 victories, Rizzoli with 11 and Bompiani with 10. Feltrinelli, with 4 victories, shares the place with Garzanti.
Among the smaller publishing houses, each with a unique success, which contribute to the diversity and richness of the Italian literary scene, there is Elliot, winner of the last edition with ‘Come d’aria’ by Ada D’Adamo, the third person to win a posthumous victory.
Lazio stands out for the greatest number of victories with famous authors such as Alberto Moravia, Elsa Morante and Alessandro Piperno. Piedmont follows, in second place with 9 triumphs, with famous authors such as Umberto Eco and Primo Levi.
Tuscany closes the podium with 8 victories, among which Sandro Veronesi stands out, who has won twice with the novels ‘Caos calmo’ and ‘Il colibrì’. Lombardy has obtained only 5 Strega Prizes, despite the presence of the main publishing houses in Milan. At the bottom of the list, we find the Marche whose only two victories both belong to Paolo Volponi with ‘La strada per Roma’ and ‘La macchina mondiale’. Calabria closes the ranking with only one victory, while Valle d’Aosta, Trentino, Umbria, Molise and Basilicata are excluded for never having won the Strega Prize.
Preply, an online language learning platform, conducted this study by initially analyzing the publishing houses that won the Strega Prize from the 1947 editions to 2023. The second part of the study examined the regions of origin of all the winners, focusing on authors born in Italy and excluding those born abroad.
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