The writer Stefano Benni died in Bologna, his hometown, after a long illness. Writer, journalist and playwright, Benni was one of the most loved authors of Italian literature. Among his most appreciated successes Bar Sport, Celestini, Margherita Dolcevita, Elianto, the grammar of God, earth!. With over twenty novels and collections of short stories, Benni has built a recognizable literary universe, populated by eccentric and tenderly grotesque characters, often victims (but never accomplices) of a cynical and dehumanizing society.
Stefano Benni was born in 1947 in Bologna, but his childhood spent “on the mountains of the Apennines, where he does the first literary, erotic and political discoveries”, revealed himself on his blog.
He began to write around the age of twenty, then the collaborations with some newspapers, writing first for the world, Panorama, Espresso, Repubblica and then for the Manifesto.
“Being the military in the wolves of Tuscany (what a destiny!) And between a guard and a stake, he writes Bar Sport. With the first money he travels like a madman,” he still told of himself.
The long illness that had not turned off his ironic spirit
For some time, Benni had struggled against a disease that, while wearing it in the body, had not been able to turn off his free, ironic, sharp spirit.
Visionary and inclatable author, Benni has been able to tell our country with a unique look, mixing political satire, surreal poetry, civil invective and anarchist humor. His literary production has gone through genres and decades, without ever losing freshness and originality, and has accompanied generations of readers through fantastic worlds, improbable bars, marginalized rebels and visionary prophets.
Behind humor, however, there was always a profound existential restlessness, an acute sensitivity for the injustices of the present and a visceral love for freedom and art. In the Benni years he had expanded his repertoire by writing theatrical texts, poems, fairy tales, musical works and graphic novels. Among its most recent titles: “Gura” (2020), the poem “Dancing Paradiso” (2019) and the autobiographical docufilm “The adventures of the wolf” (2018). Just “the wolf” was the nickname that Benni brought with him since childhood, linked to the childhood spent in the woods of the Bolognese Apennines and became, over time, a symbol of a lonely, rebellious, indomitable spirit.
The refusal of the Vittorio De Sica Prize and the friendship with Daniel Pennac
Stefano Benni was also a great supporter of the public school and culture as a common good: in 2015 he refused the Vittorio De Sica Prize, openly protesting against the cuts of the Renzi government to education and culture. His books, translated into over 30 languages, have conquered a transversal audience, from younger readers to the most demanding intellectuals, managing to keep lightness and depth together together, commitment and imagination. Fraternal friend of Daniel Pennac, he was the one who promoted the Italian translation of the first works of the French writer at Feltrinelli. Their literary partnership, based on esteem and narrative affinity, is one of the best known on the European literary panorama.
