In the centenary of Piero Chiara, the Chiara Prize turns 25

This is an important year of anniversaries for the Chiara Prize, which turns 25 in the centenary year of the birth of the writer from Luino, 100 years since the birth of another of the literary greats from Varese Province, Vittorio Sereni, and ten years since the death of one of the most beloved chairpersons of the association Friends of Piero Chiara, Gottardo Ortelli.

For this reason, the 2013 initiatives are beginning, as the organisers remind us, “when the initiatives for the 2012 Chiara Prize have not yet come to an end,” and will include international congresses, seminars, special meetings, prestigious award ceremonies, and the highlight, the “Festival del Racconto” (Festival of the Story), which will be held in Varese town and province, Lugano and Milan, in September and October 2013. A number of events dedicated to Piero Chiara are being considered for the centenary of his birth, including an international, two-day congress, the publication of an unpublished work, and the production of an audiobook. For the tenth anniversary of the death of Gottardo Ortelli, who was the councillor for culture on Varese town council and the chairman of the Friends of Piero Chiara, an exhibition is currently being set up, in a number of venues, also with a conference coordinated by 4 art critics, all of which will involve the association Friends of Piero Chiara, the town councils of Varese and Viggiù, the Bertoni Museum, the Art Lyceum in Varese and the Ghiggini Gallery.

Thanks go for the “essential support of Varese Province, who, throughout the years, have enabled us to become even bigger, for the patronage of the President’s Office of Lombardy Region, for contributions from the Republic and Canton Ticino, from Varese Town Council, from Luino Town Council, from the Chamber of Commerce of Varese and of other councils, to be determined, with the collaboration of the Local Education Office and for contributions by several private organisations that, over the years, have developed a growing relationship of trust,” said the chairman of the Chiara Prize Association, Romano Oldrini, and the director, Bambi Lazzati.

PREVIEW: PIERO CHIARA EXPLAINED TO YOUNG PEOPLE

On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Piero Chiara, the writer is going to be brought into the schools, for a meeting with 160 students from the high schools of Varese, which has been organised for the morning of Friday 1 March 2013, in the Montanari Hall, with Mauro Novelli, a lecturer in Contemporary Italian Literature at the University of Milan. The meeting will be entitled “Da vicino nessuno è normale. La narrativa di Piero Chiara” (No one is normal, from close up. The fiction of Piero Chiara), and will tell the students about Chiara as a man, and about his work, with the accompaniment of excerpts from documentaries; the film critic Mauro Gervasini, will speak about the fiction of Piero Chiara, “from the book to the film”, that is, the relationship between the literature of Chiara and the film adaptations of some of his novels, with the screening of film clips. “It will be a way to learn about the literature of Piero Chiara, which is only marginally touched on in school programmes, and which is almost unknown to students in the film form,” explained Bambi Lazzati, who has always been the soul of the event.

The official calendar of events begins on Saturday 23 March, the anniversary of Piero Chiara’s birth, at the Feltrinelli bookshop in Piazza Piemonte, in Milan, at 6 p.m.; on that occasion, the new Oscar Mondadori editions of Chiara’s novels will be presented by Mauro Novelli and Federico Roncoroni.

THE CHIARA PRIZE, THE CHIARA PRIZE FOR YOUNG AUTHORS, THE CHIARA PRIZE FOR UNPUBLISHED WORKS

NOTIFICATIONS FOR THE 25TH YEAR

In the meantime, collecting stories published in Italy and in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland for the 2013 Chiara Prize has been going on since 1 May 2012, and will continue until 30 April 2013. The books must reach the prize office by Friday 3 May. Again, this year, the books, a large number of which have already been received, will be read by a committee consisting of Romano Oldrini (chairman of the Friends of the Chiara Prize and chairman of the committee), Vittorio Colombo, Luca Crovi, Robertino Ghiringhelli, Luigi Mascheroni, Mauro Novelli, Ermanno Paccagnini, Gerardo Rigozzi, Luca Saltini, Gianni Spartà and Andrea Vitali. This committee will select the three works for the final, and the people’s jury will decide the winner.

For young writers, between the ages of 15 and 25 years, resident in Italy or in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, the Chiara Prize for Young Authors has returned. This year, the prize has set the development of the opening words of an unpublished story by Piero Chiara, the opening two paragraphs, of an untitled work found among the writer’s papers and kept in the Chiara Fund of a private archive.

Each participant is free to develop the idea provided by Chiara, as he sees fit, producing a story, with a maximum of 6000 keystrokes, that must reach the association, by Thursday 9 May 2013, together with the material requested in the notification.

The jury for this prize is made up Daniela Tam Baj (Chairwoman), Andrea Giacometti, Marilena Goracci, Riccardo Prando and Stefano Vassere, who will select the stories for the final.

For anyone over 25, with a story in the drawer, there is the Chiara Prize for unpublished works, for anyone that sends at least 3 stories, of about 160,000 keystrokes, that have never been published in magazines or on the Web. The prize is the publication of the collection of winning stories. The jury is made up of Andrea Fazioli (Chairman), Federico Bianchessi, Michele Mancino, Federico Roncoroni and Carlo Zanzi. The winning story will have 400 copies printed by, and with the support of, the publisher Pietro Macchione Editore.

Finally, for the fans of photography, the prize “Riccardo Prina, fotografia e parola” (Riccardo Prina, photography and words) has reached its third year. This prize is dedicated to photographers aged 20 and over, who present their unpublished photographic work that is freely inspired by a story or novel of their own choosing, published in Italy.

All forms for taking part in the competition, and the methods for taking part in the seminars and in the People’s Jury, can be downloaded from the website www.premiochiara.it, or may be requested from the Secretary’s office of the Chiara Prize, Tel. 0332 335525.

SEMINARS FOR EVERYONE, FROM PHOTOGRAPHY TO CREATIVE WRITING

Like every year, as part of the Chiara Prize, meetings are being organised to investigate various areas of culture.

The contemporary art and photography critic, Elio Grazioli, will hold a seminar on photography, entitled “The Italian Look”, on Saturday 21 September, from 9.15 a.m. to 12.45 p.m., in Villa Recalcati, Varese.

On Saturday 5 October, and Saturday 19 October, from 9.15 a.m. to 12.45 p.m., in Villa Recalcati, Varese, the seminar on philosophy “Le scritture della pratica filosofica” (The writings of philosophical practice) and “Seminar workshop on writing, with tests” will be given by Fabio Minazzi, a professor of theoretical philosophy at Insubria University, in which Paolo Giannitrapani, Marina Lazzari, Anna Maroni and Veronica Ponzellini will take part. Andrea Fazioli, from Canton Ticino, the author of 5 novels, will give the writing seminar “Laboratorio di scrittura e lettura creativa” (workshop on creating writing and reading) on Saturday 12 October, from 9.15 a.m. to 3.30 p.m., in Villa Recalcati, Varese.

The seminars are free, but numbers are restricted, so booking is compulsory.

“SUITE 303”: THE CENTENARY OF THE PALACE ALSO BECOMES LITERARY

This year, “Palacento”, the series of events to commemorate the centenary of the Palace Hotel in Varese, is also being included in the programme of initiatives for the Chiara Prize, with the competition “Suite 303”, for unpublished stories (with a maximum of 5000 keystrokes) set in the hotel’s legendary Suite 303, where Princess Beatrix of Holland and Sofia Loren, among others, have stayed.