Campiello Prize, here are the five finalists

A jury of 300 anonymous readers, selected nationwide on the basis of social and professional categories, different every year and whose names remain secret until the final evening, is preparing to judge the five finalists of the 63rd edition of the Premio Campiello, a contemporary Italian literature competition promoted by the Fondazione Il Campiello - Confindustria Veneto.

Friday 30 May saw the selection of the finalists in Padua, with a vote in the Aula Magna G. Galilei of Palazzo del Bo, University of Padua: here the Jury of Literati voted among the 81 books admitted to the competition by the Technical Committee: in the first round Wanda Marasco with "Di spalle a questo mondo" (Neri Pozza) with 7 votes, Monica Pareschi with "Inverness" (Polidoro) with 6 votes and Fabio Stassi with "Bebelplatz" (Sellerio Editore) with 6 votes, in the second round Marco Belpoliti with "Nord Nord" (Giulio Einaudi Editore) with 6 votes, in the fifth round Alberto Prunetti with "Troncamacchioni" (Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore) with 6 votes.

During the selection, the Jury also announced the winner of the Campiello Opera Prima Prize, an award given since 2004 to an author making his or her literary debut. The prize was awarded to Antonio Galetta with 'Pietà' (Giulio Einaudi Editore).

The Literary Jury is chaired by Giorgio Zanchini and is composed of authoritative personalities from the literary and academic world such as: Alessandro Beretta, literary critic, journalist, film programmer and cultural promoter, Federico Bertoni, lecturer in Literary Criticism and Comparative Literature at the University of Bologna, Daniela Brogi, lecturer in Contemporary Italian Literature at the University for Foreigners of Siena, Silvia Calandrelli, director of Rai Cultura, Daria Galateria, writer, academic and translator, Rita Librandi Professor emerita of Italian Linguistics and History of the Italian Language and Vice-President of the Accademia della Crusca, Liliana Rampello, literary critic and essayist, she taught Aesthetics at the University of Bologna, Stefano Salis, editor-in-chief of the Commentary and Domenica pages of Il Sole 24 Ore and Lorenzo Tomasin, Professor of Romance Philology at the University of Lausanne and Roberto Vecchioni, singer-songwriter, writer, university lecturer.

"Presiding over the Jury of Literati of the Campiello Prize for the first time was a profoundly instructive experience,' Zanchini said. I was able to closely observe, with great curiosity and admiration, the seriousness, commitment and absolute impartiality that animate every discussion and every judgement on books'.