Chatwin Prize, here are all the 2023 winners

The 2023 edition of the Chatwin Prize. Presented by the artistic director Luciana Damiano and the Italian Touring Club journalist Stefano Brambilla, the initiative was dedicated to Ermanno Salvaterra, a great climber and lover of Patagonia (just like Chatwin) who passed away a few months ago.
On the stage of the La Spezia theatre, set with an installation by Claudio Papola, numerous awards were given to illustrious personalities of the Italian and European cultural scene whose artistic work is based on travel literature.
The Chatwin Prize “Paper Travels” First Work went to the historian and writer Gianni Dubbini Venier, for his first work on the book The Adventurer, On the trail of Nicolò Manucci from Venice to the Strait of Hormuz (Neri Pozza): “A a work created with stubbornness, courage and great energy, which combines with extraordinary harmony solid historical research and an engaging travel reportage, a journey of over five thousand kilometers in which he reconstructs, observes and experiences as a contemporary traveler the ancient routes traveled by a young Venetian , Nicolò Mannucci. A story enriched by Angelica Kaufmann’s photographs, made compelling by fluid and brilliant prose.”
The Chatwin Prize for the best travel book published in 2022 was awarded to the writer and traveler Colin Thubron for his latest work, Between Russia and China: Along the Amu River (Ponte alle Grazie): “A courageous and authentic book, in in which the re-enactment of the clashes between Manchus and Cossacks alternates with the chronicle of decadent housing and impromptu friendships. The recall of great historical figures who crossed those lands is intertwined with the meticulous description of the landscape that surrounds it, a rich and complete fresco of a region that is on the outskirts of our world and of our attention”.
The Chatwin Lifetime Achievement Award “A life of travel and literary passion” was awarded to the Dutch writer and traveler Jan Brokken, currently on an Italian tour to promote his latest work entitled La suite di Giava (Iperborea Edizioni). An award given “For its unmistakable trait in which the art of writing and the soul of the traveler give the reader a dimension in which space and time are marked by a passionate and attentive vision; for the ability to reproduce places, atmospheres, life stories of great characters and ordinary people, leading towards new reading perspectives; for his ability to investigate cultural geography and history, starting from a closer and more personal vision to extend it to the universal”.
The Chatwin Prize “Travels at the tip of a pencil” was collected by the cartoonist, screenwriter and director Igor Tuveri, aka Igort: “For having made the mind and desires fly far away, for the kindness of his artistic landscape; for having told stories with the hidden sound of things, for having breathed on manga like a wanderer of signs. For having given images like a globetrotter ready to overcome the blurred boundaries between good and evil.”
The Chatwin Prize “A World to Save” went to the botanist, essayist and popularizer Stefano Mancuso “For having opened a new vision of the plant world, teaching us in a fresh and disruptive way how plants are intelligent and sensitive beings, capable of choosing, learning and remember; for his commitment to research; for the tireless dissemination activity which identifies the search for simple and innovative solutions for building a sustainable future in the observation of the plant world”.

The Chatwin Prize “The absolute eye” was instead awarded to the photographer and storyteller Davide Monteleone (present via remote connection): “An absolute eye in the choice of the theme, the place, the moment and in the perfect composition of each image, in its artistic evolution, from travel to reportage to visual research, Davide Monteleone continues to be an explorer of the societies and cultures of the world, telling complex and profound stories that push us to reflect and which always manage to involve the viewer in the narrative”.
In closing, the prizes were awarded to the first place winners in the “photography” and “narrative” sections of the 2023 competition selected by a jury chaired this year by the photographer Francesco Cito and the writer Andrea De Carlo.
The best travel shots were those of Valentina Brancaforte with Habitat Mongolia: “Five photographs to take us to Mongolia, a distant world and not just in terms of kilometres. Valentina Brancaforte’s gaze ranges from unlimited horizons to glimpses of everyday life, showing us small signs of modernity alongside age-old gestures and traditions. With a sober black and white, which does not indulge in excess, her photographs allow us to perceive the infinite dilation of space and time, in a region that is at the center of Asia, but distant from everything”.
The winner of the narrative section was Clara Valenzani with the story “Heart of Rust” in which “Her description of the sounds, smells and voices inside the old rattling train that crosses the steppes with its human load is evocative. of Central Asia, connecting villages lost in the great expanses. The author knows how to describe well the contrasting images and sensations of the journey: strangeness and familiarity, stasis and movement, heat and cold, speed and slowness, fullness and emptiness. And the image of the track layout is vivid as a ‘long and thin wound that does not bleed’ as it cuts through the timeless landscape of those distant places”.
For the photography section the other two classified were Giuseppe Sabella with Romania and Massimo Di Nonno with L’Arca; for the second narrative came Angela Mori with A dream along 143 stations and third ex aequo, “I’m waiting for a lime” by Andreina De Tomassi and “Vi salverà il futuro” by Anna Magli.
The appointment with the Chatwin Prize is for 2024, with the opening of the competition announcement. All information on www.premiochatwin.it