Several months and many meetings to select the finalists

Journalist Giorgio Zanchini is the new president of the jury of literati of the Campiello Prize, the jury that selects the five finalist books, as well as the prize for young people and first works.

In this year's vote he did not want his vote to be decisive, why?

In fact, I tried, I hoped it was not diriment... because I was sorry to decide on the last book that did or did not make it into the five. In the end, though, it always came to an impasse and so I had to choose and drop one. Whatever, honours and obligations.

Following former minister Sangiuliano's statement that he had not read the books he voted for at Strega, there has been much discussion as to whether or not the jurors of literary prizes are able to read all the books they have to evaluate. Can you read them all? How many books did you have to evaluate this year? And if you have not been able to read them, how do you vote? .

The books are indeed many, but I must say that I have found jurors to be extraordinarily hardworking. It should come as no surprise, however, that they are all renowned literati and take their task very seriously. Any but all authors, even independently of publishing houses, can submit a pdf - a few hundred come in - which is taken into consideration at a first reading level. The jury chooses which ones to read carefully and thoroughly and for those they ask for the hard copy, which I believe allows for a more careful reading. And those novels are read, there are several dozen of them, but the selection process is long, it lasts months, there are many meetings in which we confront each other.