The shortlist of novels nominated to win the 2026 Strega Prize is narrowing. On Wednesday morning, at the Sala del Tempio di Vibia Sabina e Adriano in Rome, Melania G. Mazzucco announced the dozen among the 79 works proposed by the Friends of Sunday. Competing for the most prestigious national literary award will be:
- Maria Attanasio, The Reverse Rose (Sellerio), proposed by Ottavia Piccolo
- Ermanno Cavazzoni, Story of a friendship (Quodlibet), proposed by Massimo Raffaeli
- Teresa Ciabatti, Donnaregina (Mondadori), proposed by Roberto Saviano
- Mauro Covacich, Lina and the stone (The ship of Theseus), proposed by Edoardo Nesi
- Michele Mari, The stone guests (Einaudi), proposed by Vittorio Lingiardi
- Matteo Nucci, Plato. A love story (Feltrinelli), proposed by Giancarlo De Cataldo
- Alcide Pierantozzi, I twist it (Einaudi), proposed by Donatella Di Pietrantonio
- Bianca Pitzorno, The sleepwalker (Bompiani), proposed by Roberta Mazzanti
- Christian Raimo, The invention of color (The ship of Theseus), proposed by Luciana Castellina
- Elena Rui, Camus’ widows (The Footprint), proposed by Lisa Ginzburg
- Nadeesha Uyangoda, Dirty water (Einaudi), proposed by Gaia Manzini
- Marco Vichi, Child’s eyes (Guanda), proposed by Laura Bosio.
Mazzucco: “The return of the novel”
The most relevant element this year “is the return of the novel – commented Mazzucco -. The return of history, and stories, and the parallel contraction of autobiographical narratives, family memories and/or auto-fiction, which had instead prevailed in recent editions”. These are novels “which can be defined, with some distinction, as historical – he continued -. Often the character of the writer, or writer, acts as a witness/chronicler/investigator of collective events and phenomena. But there is also the writer as such, dealing with an indefinable profession, with crises of inspiration, the success or rejection of the publishing market, he is undoubtedly the protagonist of this edition”.
The prize will be awarded by the vote of 800 eligible voters, distributed as follows: 460 Amici della Domenica, 245 voters from abroad selected by 35 Italian cultural institutes around the world (who contribute to the formation of the jury by each casting 7 jurors among scholars, translators and enthusiasts of our language and literature), 30 collective votes expressed by schools, universities and reading clubs of the libraries of Rome and 65 votes of strong readers chosen from the world of professions and entrepreneurship.
The announcement of the five finalists is scheduled for June 3rd at the Roman Theater in Benevento, while the final evening will be held live on television on Rai 3, on July 8th at the Campidoglio: a symbolic choice that pays homage to Rome, the city that saw the birth and growth of the prize.
