The 2026 Festival of Writers’ Global Crossroads
Thursday 7 & Friday 8: FESTIVAL OF WRITERS
Since the 14th century, Florence has been a hub for Italian literature, producing literary icons such as Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and Machiavelli. Timeless stories and even the foundations of the Italian language were shaped in Florence, paving the way for the rest of Italy. Today, in the 21st century, Florence is an international crossroads of languages, ideas and cultures. Continuing its long literary legacy, the city will host the latest edition of its Festival of Writers, culminating in the Gregor von Rezzori prize, which celebrates translation excellence and foreign fiction. On May 7 and 8 across Florence, lectures, panels and award ceremonies will unfold in some of the city’s most distinguished venues.
The literary festival honours translators who bring foreign fiction into Italian, widening the reach of world literature. Shortlisted this year for the Gregor von Rezzori prize is French writer Julia Deck’s novel Ann d’Inghilterra, which explores an evolving mother-daughter relationship. Translated by Yasmina Melauoah, Deck’s novel interrogates themes of class, culture and time. Palestinian-British writer Isabella Hammad’s shortlisted Entra il fantasma, translated by Maurizia Balmelli, follows a female protagonist navigating the political and cultural realities of life in war-torn Palestine. Similarly, Palestinian writer Karim Kattan’s L’Eden all’alba, translated by Cettina Caliò, also examines identity against the background of the conflict in Palestine. Egyptian poet and author Iman Mersal investigates the life of Enayat al-Zayyat, in her feminist novel Sulle tracce di Enayat, translated by Elisabetta Bartuli. ‘Il buon male’ by Argentine Samanta Schweblin, which explores family bonds in the face of adversity and disruption, was translated by Maria Nicola.
This year’s translation prize was awarded to Yasmina Mélaouah for her Italian rendering of Mathias Énard’s Malinconia dei confini. The novel is set in Berlin and begins with the protagonist’s contemplative stroll around the city on an early autumn night. Emotions of sadness, melancholy and hopelessness are immediately evoked, setting the tone for the rest of the novel, which examines themes of displacement, memory and identity. The Gregor von Rezzori jury praised Mélaouah’s preservation of the rhythm and nuance of the original, whilst also maintaining the intellectual depth in the Italian language.
Inaugurating the literary festival, Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk will explore competing ideas of place and belonging in her lecture entitled ‘Two Ontologies of Space: Territory and Terroir (Two Ways of Reading Space’), at the Cenacolo of the Monumental Complex of Santa Croce on Thursday, May 7 at 6 pm. Tokarczuk is a Nobel Prize winner, best known for her fragmentary novel ‘Flights,’ built from interconnected essays, stories and reflections on historical episodes.
The prize-giving ceremony for the Gregor von Rezzori Young Poets Award will be held on the Friday, May 8 at 10.30 am, in the Sala Pegaso of Palazzo Guadagni Strozzi Sacrati, celebrating young and emerging voices in contemporary poetry.
In the lead up to the evening’s main event, conversations between the finalist authors and members of the jury for the Best Foreign Fiction prize will take place from 2 pm in the Sala Ferri of the Gabinetto Scientifico Letterario G.P. Vieusseux, offering the audience the chance to hear from this year’s shortlisted authors.
The festival will conclude later that day with the announcement of the Best Foreign Fiction prize in the Sala d’Arme in Palazzo Vecchio, at 6.30 pm on the Friday.
Set against Florence’s historic venues, the Festival of Writers once again brings together authors, translators and readers in celebration of international literature. Established by the Santa Maddalena Foundation, the Gregor von Rezzori prize has been running for nearly two decades, championing foreign literature since 2007. (Aniela Cabut)
