Inge Feltrinelli Award, here are the three winners of the second edition

Migrations, the fight against the mafia and the ‘death flights’ in Mexico: these are the themes at the center of the winning works of the second edition of the “Inge Feltrinelli Prize. Telling the world, defending rights”, announced on 8 March in Milan, in the headquarters of the Feltrinelli Foundation. Among the over 150 nominated works, the following triumphed: for the Books category, “Mal di Libia” (Bompiani) by Nancy Porsia, on the great entanglements of politics, the civil war and the tragedies of migration in Libya; for the Investigations category, “Los vuelos de Alicia” by Marcela Turati, which shed light on the Mexican victims thrown into the sea from planes during the so-called ‘dirty war’; for the Podcast category, the script “Let me hear” proposed by the 1A class of the Liceo C. Poerio of Foggia, which placed the fight for legality and the story of the mafia victims at the center of the city’s contradictions.

To these first prizes were added four special mentions for books and investigations. Among these, the special mention Libri Kids, aimed at women writers of children’s literature, new to this second edition. The winners for the two special mentions dedicated to fiction and non-fiction works were decided by the over 4,500 votes expressed by the popular jury, which awarded “The smuggler” by Stéphanie Coste (The Ship of Theseus) for the Books category and for the Kids Books category “No man’s land” by Maria José Floriano (Kalandraka editions). Among the journalistic investigations, evaluated by the international jury, the special mention against gender violence was given to “Femmes à abattre” by the Youpress journalistic collective, published on Mediapart, while “Chinàs online feminist revolution” by Wanqing Zhang, Rest of World triumphed as the winning work of the Special Jury Prize.

Making up the international jury: the president Carlo Feltrinelli, the writer Simonetta Agnello Hornby, the journalist Lucia Annunziata, the CEO of Gruppo Feltrinelli Alessandra Carra, the journalist Ezio Mauro, the journalist Simonetta Fiori, the director of Anagrama Jorge Herralde, the Amnesty International spokesperson Riccardo Noury, the writer Christoph Ransmayr, the president of PEN International Burhan Sonmez, the publishers Dominique Bourgois and Susanne Schüssler and the author Pinar Selek. The Award is promoted by the G. Feltrinelli Foundation and the Feltrinelli Group, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Merit and the three promoting partners BookCity, Aie and the School for Booksellers Umberto and Elisabetta Mauri.

These are the reasons for the three winning works: “Mal di Libya” drags us into the political events of a hostile, contradictory and little-understood Libya, offering a lateral look at ‘after Gaddafi’, the civil war, migrations along the Mediterranean route, the dream of democracy that germinated with the Arab Spring and soon faded. From the only Italian journalist stationed in Libya, a lively and engaging story which, combining narrative rhythm and informative clarity, sheds light on international responsibilities”.

“Los vuelos de Alicia illuminates the decades-long struggle for the recognition of truth and justice in Mexico, but it also reveals a lesser-known aspect of dictatorships in Central and South America: the use of death flights by the Mexican military. Through the search for a daughter on the trail of her missing mother, the investigation stands out for its narrative complexity and the richness of the sources used. By investigating a wound that is still open in Latin America, it reveals an exemplary testimony to the struggle for memory and justice.”

“Let me feel was created to ‘be heard’. The project demonstrates a strong sensitivity towards the sphere of rights and is an example of civil and civic courage against the mafias. The strength of the theme, the storytelling, the reconstruction of the context around a leading character, that of Daniela Marcone and her family, combine well with the expressive language of the podcast. The life and battle for legality of the Marcone family is intertwined with the contradictions of Foggia, a city that has not lost the desire to fight for justice.”