TiBE 台北國際書展 2025.2.4-9

MARIO BARENGHI

In an article published in the online cultural magazine “Doppiozero” and entitled “Instructions for Imagination,” Mario Barenghi at one point addresses the issue of teaching and asks, “Can literature be taught?”. Yes, and successfully, according to his biography. Born in Milan in 1956, he teaches Contemporary Italian Literature at the University of Milan Bicocca where he works on fiction, memoir and literary theory. His research has led him to investigate the figures of Italo Calvino and Primo Levi, with particular attention and to whom he has dedicated essays and in-depth studies. These include the two monographs Italo Calvino, le linee e i margini (2007) and Calvino. Profili di storia letteraria (2009, both Il Mulino), the recent Calvino politeista (Carocci, 2024), a collection of essays largely linked to the occasion of the centenary of the writer's birth, and the bilingual volume Perché crediamo a Primo Levi?/Why Do We Believe Primo Levi? (Einaudi, 2013). His works also include Poetici primati (Quodilibet, 2020) and In extremis (Carocci, 2023), which explores the funeral theme in twentieth-century Italian literature.

GIANNI BIONDILLO

Born and raised in Milan, Gianni Biondillo (1966) made his debut in fiction in 2004, the year in which he created the character of Inspector Michele Ferraro: Per cosa si uccide (Guanda) is the first volume in the successful series of detective stories set in the suburbs of his hometown, which over the years has earned the author awards and recognition in Italy and abroad. Multifaceted and versatile in style and genre, Biondillo is also a playwright, editor and essayist, author of children's books, theatre monologues and short stories, as well as combining his profession as a writer with that of architect. It is from here, from the fusion of his two chosen fields, that Quello che noi non siamo (Guanda, 2023) comes, a book that won the Bagutta Prize 2024 - Italy's oldest literary prize - investigating the disillusions of brilliant young artists who misunderstood the advent of fascism as a new season for architecture.

DAVIDE CALÌ

Born in Liestal in 1972, Davide Calì’s career as an illustrator and writer began in 1994, in one of the temples of Italian graphic novels, the editorial office of "linus" magazine. He has enriched his experience over the years with new challenges, milestones and achievements, e.g. in literature, promoting reading, entertainment, and as a board game designer. Translated and published in more than 30 countries, the English version of his book The Writer (Kite Edizioni, 2019) - published in Taiwan by Locus Publishing, as well as many others - was included by the “New York Times” in the list of the 10 best illustrated books of 2022. In 2024, he was the focus of the exhibition “When Two Seas Meet in Bologna”, a project celebrating the meeting of his creative universe with the island of Taiwan, organized by Locus Publishing and Accademia Drosselmeier under the patronage of the Bologna Children's Book Fair. His latest books include A volte, ancora and Cavalca la tigre (both Kite Edizioni, 2024).

LAURA IMAI MESSINA

Italian by birth but Japanese by adoption, Laura Imai Messina (Rome, 1981) moved to Tokyo at the age of twenty-three to perfect her language and has not left it since. Here she completed and refined her studies, first at the? International Christian University and then at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, where she delved into the theme of materiality in Japanese and European literature. She contributes to numerous Italian cultural inserts, and to Japanese radio and television station NHK. She is the author of novels, essays, and children's stories, including The Phone Box at the Edge of the World (Piemme, 2020), a best seller sold in more than 30 countries, Il Giappone a colori (2023), and Tutti gli indirizzi perduti (2024, both Einaudi), the latest book set in a small post office on Awashima Island that collects mail that is mailed but never delivered.

ELIANA LIOTTA

A professional journalist and writer, Eliana Liotta combines scientific rigor and popular style in her books. Among many, examples is her book La Dieta Smartfood (Rizzoli, 2016) written in collaboration with the IEO-European Institute of Oncology in Milan, which has been translated in more than 20 countries including South Korea, L'età non è uguale per tutti (2018), with the Milan-based Humanitas University Hospital, La rivolta della natura (2020), which earned her the Montale Prize for non-fiction, and Il cibo che ci salverà (2021, all with La nave di Teseo), a reflection on the ecological change with regard to food from which she drew five television monologues aired on Rai 1. With La nave di Teseo in 2024 also came La vita non è una corsa, her latest book dedicated to the “four breaks that help improve health and youthfulness,” together with the University and San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. Director of the monthly magazine “Benessere,” writer for the “Corriere della Sera,” she is a professor of Scientific Publishing at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan. She created and directs the publishing series Scienze per la vita (Sonzogno), in which she has published 17 books by renowned scientists and doctors.

FEDERICA MANZON

Born in Pordenone in 1981, Federica Manzon lives and works in Milan. In 2008, she published the narrative reportage Come si dice addio (Mondadori), followed in rapid succession by the novels Di fama e di sventura (Mondadori, 2011), La nostalgia degli altri (Feltrinelli, 2017) and Il bosco del confine (Aboca, 2020). Linked to Trieste ‘by a love without reason’, she is the editor of the anthology collection I mari di Trieste (Bompiani, 2015) and it is in Friuli-Venezia Giulia's capital city that she sets Alma (Feltrinelli, 2024), her latest novel, winner of the 62nd edition of the prestigious Campiello Prize. Editorial director of Guanda from January 2023, she has a solid background in the publishing world behind her. The cornerstones of this are her extensive experience as an editor of Italian and foreign fiction at Mondadori and her teaching, and then management of teaching activities, at the creative writing school founded by Alessandro Baricco, the Holden in Turin.

FABIANO MASSIMI

Author of the best-selling Italian novel at the 2019 London Book Fair (L'angelo di Monaco, Longanesi), Fabiano Massimi (Modena, 1977) is one of the leading names in historical thrillers. A librarian by training and profession, Lecturer in writing at the university's Holden School program and winner in 2017 of the Tedeschi Prize with Il club Montecristo (Mondadori), he collaborates with several Italian publishing houses as a reader, anthology editor, translator from English, and fiction and nonfiction editor. As a writer, his literary exploration of the 1930s continued, again for the publisher Longanesi, with I demoni di Berlino (2021), about the Reichstag fire of 1933; Se esiste un perdono (2022), set in 1938 Prague and dedicated to the “British Schindler” Nicholas Winton; and Le furie di Venezia (2024), an intrigue around the bond between Benito Mussolini and a woman who claims to be his first wife.

SUSANNA MATTIANGELI

Along with Gianni Rodari, Italo Calvino is one of the authors who has most influenced the work of Susanna Mattiangeli (Rome, 1971), an author, translator, and scriptwriter of comics for children and young people, who for years has been designing workshops on narrative techniques in collaboration with schools, libraries and bookstores. A finalist at the Premio Strega Ragazze e Ragazzi with I numeri felici (Vànvere Edizioni, 2007), winner of the Andersen Award as “Best Writer” for her ability to “render in a fitting way the complexity of thought and feeling of the youngest children,” in 2021 she was chosen as the Italian Children's Laureate 2022-2024. Among her many books, Day on the Beach (Topipittori, 2018) was published by Locus Publishing for the Taiwanese market, while the bestselling HB Pencil series (Il Castoro, 2018), translated in more than 10 countries, was recently acquired by Mainland China.

LORENZO MATTOTTI

Lorenzo Mattotti’s creative spirit is multifaceted and ever-changing. Born in Brescia in 1954, he shot to fame as one of the founders of the Valvoline collective in 1991 with Fuochi (Granata Press), displaying a style that was already mature yet seeking innovation. Cover artist of magazines worldwide, from “The New Yorker” to “Le Monde”, he illustrates classics moving skilfully between genres and eras, from Collodi’s Pinocchio (Rizzoli, 1991) to the reworking of Poe’s The Raven by Lou Reed (Einaudi, 2013). The 2000 Cannes Film Festival official poster, 2023 Venice official poster and animated film “La famosa invasione degli orsi in Sicilia” which he directed and was presented at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival in the “Un certain regard” selection, shine in the cinematic galaxy. In 2024, he created the guide illustration for Italy's participation as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Buchmesse.

LUCA PEYRON

“Happily a priest, committed to the university, enthusiastic about new collaborations especially for young people.” So Don Luca Peyron (Turin, 1973)writes of himself, previously a jurist and presently a Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Turin, where he has worked for 20 years. A university chaplain with responsibilities at local, regional and national levels, he is coordinator of the Digital Apostolate Service - of which he is co-founder - a service among the first in the world created to “reflect, plan and act with respect to digital culture from a faith perspective.” A professor of theology in several Italian universities, a passionate astrophile, he collaborates with magazines and newspapers such as “Avvenire” and “The Huffington Post,” reflecting on issues related to technological transformation. Among his publications, Incarnazione digitale (Editrice Elledici, 2019), I diritti umani nella condizione digitale (Effatà, 2021) e Cieli sereni (San Paolo, 2023).

BEATRICE ALEMAGNA

Born in Bologna in 1973, Beatrice Alemagna fulfilled her childhood dream by becoming one of the best known and most appreciated talents in the international panorama of children's literature. A worldwide award-winning author and illustrator, she has exhibited everywhere, from Paris to Lisbon, from Tokyo to Sao Paulo, and her name appears alongside some of the greats of literature - Apollinaire, Gianni Rodari and Roald Dahl, to name but a few - whose words she accompanies with her pencil strokes. The New York Times and the New York Public Library twice included her in the list of the best illustrated books for children, first with On a Magical Do-Nothing Day (2016) and then with Child of glass (2019, both Topipittori), also translated and published in Chinese, along with many others. In 2006, in Taipei, her book A Lion in Paris published in France and then in Italy, in 2009, by Donzelli editore, won the Best Book Prize. Locus Publishing published in Taiwan You Can’t Kill Snow White (Topipittori, 2021).