“Gränsen för livets värde” – Sandro Veronesi

Last year, the Italian writer Sandro Veronesi won the Strega Prize with his latest novel “Il colibrì”.

Now, the Swedish publishing house Contempo releases “Gränsen för livets värde” (“Cani d’estate”), that Veronesi wrote in 2018.

In this book, the author tells the story of Aquarius and Diciotti ships, the closure of ports as the only solution to migration, the clearance of a xenophobic and racist language, but also the collective mobilization in defense of fundamental human rights and the politics of hospitality and solidarity.

“Gränsen för livets värde” was published also thanks to the C.M. Lerici Foundation’s literary grant.

The Passenger – Sweden

Since 1986 the Swedish writer Fredrik Sjöberg has lived on Runmarö island, a natural paradise in Stockholm archipelago. Here he studies insects and he reflects on changes in fauna, flora and landscape, discovering unexpected returns and sensational apparitions of disappeared or emigrated species.

Fredrik Sjöberg is a Swedish writer and cultural journalist, but also entomologist and collector. He studied biology at Lund University and after his degree he spent two years traveling around the world.

In Italy his books has been published by Iperborea and you can read more about his life on Runmarö on “The Passenger – Sweden“, a book-magazine that collects investigations, literary reportages and narrative essays in order to portrait the contemporary life of a country and its inhabitants.

“The Passenger – Sweden” was published also thanks to a literature grant by the C.M. Lerici Foundation.

Photo: Giulia Mangione / Prospekt Photographers.

The call 2021 is closed!

The C.M. Lerici Foundation call for applications 2021 is now officially closed!

Despite the challenging and difficult times we are living in, we have received many interesting applications, both for scholarship and literature support.

We look forward to reading all of them and presenting you the projects that will be selected.

The new call 2022 will be open again from 1st December 2021, but in the meantime we will continue to tell the Foundation’s story and work.

Photo: Stockholm’s library by Katja-Anna Krug on Unsplash

Why the cultural exchange is so important? #4

Why the cultural exchange is so important?

Renata is a master student in Swedish Language and Literature at Ca Foscari in Venice.

When she first started learning Swedish four years ago, she was just curious about this mysterious and cold cuountry up North.

At that time, she didn’t know how fascinating and interesting this culture could be.

In Stockholm she also had the opportunity to experience the truly Swedish life, taking part in some of the Nordic traditions, such as the celebration of Luciatåg in December.

Let’s virtually travel to Sweden with Renata! Watch the video here.

Foundation’s archives

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The applications’ register of the C.M. Lerici Foundation in 1961-1962.

And you? Are you going to apply this year?

The call 2021 will be open until 31 January 2021. Don’t miss this opportunity!

Hoppets tåg/Il treno dei bambini – Viola Ardone

Finally, “Il treno dei bambini” (“Hoppets tåg”) by the Italian writer Viola Ardone has been translated in Swedish by Johanna Hedenberg for Norstedts.

In 1946, at the age of 7 years old, Amerigo leaves his district in Naples – Quartieri Spagnoli (Spanish Neighborhoods) – by train. Together with thousands of other children, he crosses the entire country, from South to North Italy, where a new family waits for him. This initiative was promoted by the Communist Party to rescue children from the poorest conditions after the World War II. For Amerigo, everything seems to be different in the North – the language, the people, the food – but he quickly adapts to the new living conditions, also thanks to the music. This moving story of a separation shows us an Italy that rises from the international conflict in a new perspective.

Ardone’s novel has been on the Italian bestseller lists for a year and it has been published in 30 countries. In 2019 Viola Ardone visited Bokmässan Göteborg (Göteborg book-fair) hosted by Istituto Italiano di Cultura “C.M. Lerici” and the Swedish publishing house Norstedts.

“Hoppets tåg” was published thanks to the C.M. Lerici Foundation support. If you are a Swedish or Italian publishing house, don’t forget to apply!

Swedish Stories

Few days ago we presented you Michele Calamaio, an Italian master student in Journalism at Università degli studi di Verona.

We asked him to tell us more about his experience in Sweden at Mid Sweden Uni.

“After my visit period in Sweden and my graduation at Verona University, I had the possibility to realize a paper-blog, Ciak Travel Post, together with Raffaele Puzio and Marika De Chiara, which focuses on filmmaking and tourism issues.

I also obtained two other professional grants. The first one is Stars4Media Professional Exchange, a professional exchange program about the most important journalistic issues concerning European policies. Together with Giuseppe Papalia and Piotr Kaczynski, I have developed a transmedia storytelling project on the issue of international migration and the impact of Covid-19. The second one is Blueebook European Commission Traineeship, a professionalizing internship at the European Commission in the DG – COMM Social Media & Visual Communication, where I currently work as political audiovisual communication strategist.

Therefore, the scholarship granted by C.M. Lerici Foundation was fundamental, even “mindblowing”, for my ambitions. I’m sure it will be the same for the next generations of researchers and practitioners who want to discover the intriguing Scandinavian culture.“

Why the cultural exchange is so important? #3

Why the cultural exchange is so important?

We asked this question to a group of students in Swedish Culture and Literature at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice.

Carlotta tells us about her experience in Sweden. In fact, last October she visited Stockholm for about a month in order to do research at the Ingmar Bergman Foundation for her final thesis.

C.M. Lerici Foundation offers scholarships to Italian and Swedish students whose studies are related to these two countries. The call for applications 2021 is open from 1 December 2020 to 31 January 2021.

Watch the video here.

Innanför stadsmuren – Giorgio Bassani

“Innanför stadsmuren” is a collection of five short stories, in which Giorgio Bassani explores the city of Ferrara and the surrounding countryside.

Here, Bassani introduces the characters that he later developed in “Romanzo di Ferrara”, a novel about life and death set in Ferrara.

These five short stories form a gripping, winding and colorful portrait of a city during the fascist era.

Giorgio Bassani (1916–2000) was an Italian novelist and poet. He made his debut with the collection of poems “Storie dei poveri amanti e altri versi” (“Stories of unhappy lovers and other poems”) in 1944. His first novel was “The Golden Glasses” (“Gli occhiali d’oro”, 1958).

His most internationally known work is the novel The Lost Garden (“Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini”, 1962), which became a movie directed by Vittorio De Sica and it won an Oscar as Best Non-English Language Film in 1974.

“Innanför stadsmuren” is now published for the first time in Sweden – translated by Johanna Hedenberg – by the Swedish pubishing house Modernista, thanks to a grant from the C.M. Lerici Foundation.

Why the cultural exchange is so important? #2

Why the cultural exchange is so important?

We asked this question to a group of students in Swedish Culture and Literature at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice.

Today Viviana tells us why she decided to study Swedish and how her passion for this language began.

C.M. Lerici Foundation offers scholarships to Italian and Swedish students whose studies are related to these two countries.

The call for applications 2021 is open from 1 December 2020 to 31 January 2021.

Watch the video here.