Florence, 7 June 2024 – “Black on me” by Caterina Ceccuti (Mauro Pagliai Editore), “For Whom the Night Is” by Aldo Simeone and “The Pearl Forest” by Franco Berrino and Enrica Bartolozzi are the three finalist books of the 2024 edition of Vallombrosa Literary Prizepromoted by Rotary Club of Florence Valdisieve chaired by Andrea Venturini, now in its tenth year. The trio of finalists was announced during an appointment at the Caffè literaryo delle Murate in Florence in which, in addition to the writers, the proposing bookshops and readers participated. The theme of the literary competition chosen as every year by the Prize Committee was: “The forest inside and outside of us”. A technical jury made up of writers and people from civil society will choose the winning book. All three authors of the finalist books will receive a cash prize with the obligation to donate it to a non-profit organization of their choice. The awards ceremony will take place on Saturday 8 June, at 4pm at the Vallombrosa Abbey, in the presence of the president of the Region, Eugenio Giani, the president of Rotary Tuscan District 2071 and other authorities. All finalists will receive a cash prize to be donated to a non-profit organization which they will indicate. In the morning the writers will meet the students of the Istituto Comprensivo ‘E. Balducci’ who prepared works based on the finalist works. President Venturini proudly speaks of «an initiative that we have been successfully carrying out for ten years, in support of both authors and small publishers». «This year – underlined Vincenzo Sorelli – we have expanded the environmental theme to something more intimate, because each of us lives from the light and darkness of a forest». And certainly Caterina Ceccuti’s courageous and pressing book ‘Nero Addosso’ best expresses this journey into the soul. Through the story of Lidia and a boy marked by child exploitation, the human experience of pain and rebirth remains imprinted for a long time, thanks to the powerful and human voice of the Florentine journalist and writer. Also on 8 June at 11am, the finalist writers of the 2024 Vallombrosa prize will be invited to participate in a meeting with the students in which to discuss the themes of the books presented. Over the years, the Vallombrosa Literary Prize has seen illustrious writers such as Luciana Castellina (2014), Vinicio Capossela (2016), Carmine Abate (2017) and the Strega prize Paolo Cognetti (2018), Daniele Zovi (2019, Federico Pace (2020/21) ), Marco Balzano (2022) and Paolo Malaguti (2023).
