Michele Mari with The stone guests (Einaudi), Matteo Nucci with Plato. A love story (Feltrinelli), Bianca Pitzorno with The sleepwalker (Bompiani), Teresa Ciabatti with Donnaregina (Mondadori), Alcide Pierantozzi with I twist it (Einaudi) and Elena Rui with Camus’ widows (L’orma) are the 6 finalists of the 2026 Strega Prize.
Not five this year, therefore, but six: it is not a surprise, since, by regulation, in the final there must be at least one novel published by a medium-small publishing house. The shortlist was announced on Wednesday evening at the Roman Theater in Benevento, at the end of the presentation of the 12 semi-finalist books. The winner will be crowned on Wednesday 8 July at the Campidoglio: a symbolic choice that pays homage to Rome, the city that saw the birth and growth of the prize.
Pierantozzi ‘double’ finalist
After a few years, the phenomenon of the ‘double finalist’ in the two main Italian literary prizes is repeated: Alcide Pierantozzi will in fact compete for both the Campiello (in this article the top five of the recognition promoted by Confindustria Veneto) and the Strega. The last to succeed was Fabio Bacà with Nova (Adelphi) in 2022. The previous year same fate for The book of houses (Feltrinelli) by Andrea Bajani.
The sestina of the 2026 Strega Prize
The ranking emerged from the sum of the votes expressed by collective votes, strong readers, readers from abroad and Amici della Domenica. Below are the top 6 positions, with the total number of preferences:
- The stone guests (Einaudi) by Michele Mari – 280 votes
- Plato. A love story (Feltrinelli) by Matteo Nucci – 242 votes
- The sleepwalker (Bompiani) by Bianca Pitzorno – 195 votes
- Donnaregina (Mondadori) by Teresa Ciabatti – 184 votes
- I twist it (Einaudi) by Alcide Pierantozzi – 170 votes
- Camus’ widows (The Footprint) by Elena Rui – 163 votes
These are the votes obtained by the other books in the competition: Dirty water (Einaudi) by Nadeesha Uyangoda (147); The Reverse Rose (Sellerio) by Maria Attanasio (139); Story of a friendship (Quodlibet) by Ermanno Cavazzoni (137); Lina and the stone (The ship of Theseus) by Mauro Covacich (133); Child’s eyes (Guanda) by Marco Vichi (122); The invention of color (The Ship of Theseus) by Christian Raimo (119).
677 out of 800 votes cast
677 voters out of 800 expressed their preferences – between individual votes and collective votes (equal to 84.6% of those entitled): to the jury of the 460 Friends of Sunday are added as usual 245 voters from abroad selected by 35 Italian cultural institutes in the world (which each express 7 jurors including scholars, translators and enthusiasts of our language and literature), 65 votes of strong readers chosen in the world of professions and of entrepreneurship and 30 collective votes coming from the reading clubs of the Libraries of Rome and from schools, universities and reading groups.
