Santangelo and Ferraris Triumph at the Costa Smeralda Literary Prize
Evelina Santangelo with ‘Il sentimento del mare’ (Einaudi), for fiction, and Maurizio Ferraris with ‘Imparare a vivere’ (Editori Laterza), for non-fiction, are the winners of the 2024 Costa Smeralda Literary Prize.
In her novel, Santangelo wanted to portray a great dimension of humanity, history, and mystery through the sea. “Technology is rapidly evolving, which leads to a fragmentation of knowledge. Having a general perspective, like the one promised by philosophy, is useful,” explained Santangelo.
The award ceremony took place on May 4th at the Porto Cervo Conference Center and was attended by the Spanish writer Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett, who received enthusiastic applause as the winner of the International Prize. Her latest adventure, ‘La donna che fugge’ (Sellerio), featuring beloved inspector Petra Delicado, recently hit bookstores. The character is also portrayed by Paola Cortellesi in the noir series on Sky.
Bartlett expressed her thoughts on success, stating, “One should not believe too much in success because one day you have tremendous success and two days later people have completely forgotten about you. Writing is a way of life. When recognition comes, I am very pleased, but above all, I really enjoy having readers.” She appeared at the ceremony with her short white hair and a sparkling green jacket. The jury praised Bartlett for using the mystery genre to thoroughly investigate one of the most common crimes in our Western world: the failure to recognize women’s work, role, and representation.
The evening also saw the winner of the Mediterranean Culture Prize, Mariasole Bianco, co-founder and president of the non-profit organization Worldrise and author of ‘Pianeta Oceano’ (Rizzoli). Additionally, the winner of the Special Salmo Prize, a pioneer of Italian rap and a record producer from Olbia, announced that he is working on a documentary about the Costa Smeralda, from Aga Khan to the present day.
Organized and promoted by the Costa Smeralda Consortium, chaired by Renzo Persico and directed by journalist Stefano Salis, the prize – sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, and the Municipality of Arzachena, with sponsorship from Smeralda Holding – was awarded during an open evening with a large audience, hosted by journalist Roberta Floris.
The jury, composed of Lina Bolzoni, Marcello Fois, Elena Loewenthal, and Chiara Valerio, and presided over by journalist Stefano Salis, recognized Santangelo for “the quality of her writing, the depth of her themes, and the elegance of her plot.” Michela Murgia described Santangelo as someone who “knows how to work with the sea using words.”
Ferraris, a professor of theoretical philosophy at the University of Turin and president of Labont (Center for Ontology) and the Institute of Advanced Studies Scienza Nuova, received recognition for his ability to challenge our beliefs, the certainties we think we have, and the commonplaces that populate our world of things and words. The motivation for his award remarked on “his extraordinary vein of irony. ‘Imparare a vivere’ is a providential book, full of things we didn’t imagine we needed to know – or not know – and yet it is exactly like that.”
During the final ceremony, an artwork by sculptor Giuseppe Sanna was presented. It consisted of a natural-shaped stone for each category.
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