Antonella Anedda wins the LA GINESTRA Literary Award

The LA GINESTRA award, a prestigious national literary recognition dedicated to Leopardi, will be assigned to the poet Antonella Anedda. The award ceremony will be held on Thursday 12 September 2024 at 19.30:XNUMX pm at the monumental Villa delle Ginestre in Torre del Greco (NA), a historic Campania residence during the last season of Giacomo Leopardi's life.

The Award Motivation

The prize, which last year was awarded to Maestro Michelangelo Pistoletto, aims to demonstrate the fruitfulness of the perspective with which Antonella Anedda interprets the intellectual and poetic adventure of Giacomo Leopardi.

An extract from the motivation of the XVII edition reads: “Beauty to be preserved and defended against the perennial shadow of violence.” Villa delle Ginestre, in Anedda's evocation, becomes a symbol of life that resists evil and leaves a trace of humanitas to be defended against everything: “We are ephemeral, fleeting, and yet… Perhaps poetry is in this ‘and yet’ that urges, without imposing, the defense of a fragile, threatened landscape, of a language” (Antonella Anedda).

Who is Antonella Anedda?

Antonella Anedda-Angioy, born in Rome to a family of Sardinian origin, is a talented poet and essayist. Graduated in History of Modern Art, she teaches French at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Arezzo. Over the years, she has collaborated with magazines and newspapers such as Il Manifesto, Linea d'ombra, Nuovi Argomenti, Poesia, receiving prestigious literary awards: in 2000 she was awarded the Eugenio Montale Prize and in 2007 the Naples Prize – Book of the Year.

The Poetics of Anedda

Anedda represents one of the most original expressions of contemporary Italian poetry. His verses and prose give voice to essential situations of the modern soul, transforming the wounds of history and existence into sounds, words and expressions. His poetry is characterized by the responsibility of preserving the memory of the lost, of foreigners or prisoners, and is an echo of other authors such as Osip Mandel'štam, Wisława Szymborska, Philippe Jaccottet and Elizabeth Bishop.

The Connection with Giacomo Leopardi

Giacomo Leopardi has a special place in Anedda's work. One of the poet's latest books, "Darwin's plants and Leopardi's mice" (2022), reveals this connection in the title itself. Anedda brings together the scientist of The Origin of the Species and the poet of The Broom, united by their anti-anthropocentric attitude and rejection of arrogance. In her work, Leopardi is a voice that dialogues with others, highlighting compassion as an evolutionary element.

Villa delle Ginestre in Anedda's Work

In “Geografie” (2021), Anedda recalls Villa delle Ginestre precisely, making it a symbol of surviving beauty. The description of the villa near Naples, where Leopardi lived, takes on an intense and profound meaning: “So much beauty and not too far away a man slaughters another man, he believes there is something to teach the earth on which he spits.” The award ceremony of the LA GINESTRA Prize will therefore be an opportunity to celebrate the greatness and beauty of Antonella Anedda’s poetry, a voice that continues to illuminate contemporaneity with the depth of her reflections and the power of her language.