Gratteri and Nicaso win the 2026 Siani Prize: students choose "No Shortcuts."

Naples – "Without Shortcuts: A Story to Say No to Injustice" (Mondadori) is the winning book of the twenty-second edition of the Giancarlo Siani Prize. The authors are Nicola Gratteri, Public Prosecutor of the Court of Naples, and Antonio Nicaso, historian, professor of the Social History of Organized Crime at Queen's University. The book received the most votes from a jury composed entirely of secondary school students from Campania.

The ceremony and the Forum

The awards ceremony will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, September 29, at 10:30 a.m., in Hall A of the Suor Orsola Benincasa University, which since 2003 has hosted the first School of Journalism in Southern Italy and has a room dedicated to Giancarlo Siani. The ceremony will also be the first Forum of the tenth two-year term of the "Suor Orsola Benincasa" School of Journalism, which for over twenty years has been engaged—with its trainee journalists—in reflections on history, politics, and current affairs.

The Forum will open with remarks by Lucio d'Alessandro, rector of the Suor Orsola Benincasa University; Gianmario Siani, president of the Giancarlo Siani Foundation; Marco Demarco, director of the Suor Orsola Benincasa School of Journalism; Ottavio Lucarelli, president of the Campania Order of Journalists; Paolo Siani, director of the Giancarlo Siani Foundation; and Claudio Silvestri, deputy secretary general of the National Federation of the Italian Press.

Dialogue with students

The panel will then offer a discussion between the students who made up the jury and the authors of the two finalist books. Joining Nicola Gratteri will be Don Antonio Loffredo, vice president of the Fondazione Napoli C'entro, author of the book "We of the Sanità District. Young People and the Force of Change" (Edizioni San Gennaro and Marotta&Cafiero Editore). The schools represented are the Pitagora High School in Pozzuoli, the Telesi@ High School in Telese Terme, the Cuoco Campanella, Pansini, Sannazaro, and Vico high schools in Naples, and the Giancarlo Siani Comprehensive School in Villaricca, a middle school.

Siani's memory and lesson

"At Suor Orsola," emphasizes Rector Lucio d'Alessandro, "the memory and 'lessons' of Giancarlo Siani have been alive for over 25 years, ever since the foundations of investigative journalism were taught in the classrooms of the Communication Sciences degree program and the School of Journalism, primarily through his writings and his example."

A jury of students

The Giancarlo Siani Prize is named after the young journalist from "Il Mattino" who was brutally murdered by the Camorra on September 23, 1985, suppressing a courageous and independent voice. Founded in 2004, its various editions have recognized books, theses, research analyzing the mafia phenomenon, and initiatives combating illegality. Since 2024, the Prize has been open to schools, which, as a jury, select the winner each year from a selection of books promoted by the Giancarlo Siani Foundation.

“During the school year,” Gianmario Siani emphasizes, “students and their teachers read the books, explore the proposed topics in depth, meet the authors, and at the end of the course, based solely on their evaluations, the Siani Prize is awarded.”

The anti-mafia couple

This year, the award goes to two writers who, in different roles, represent anti-mafia efforts in the courts, universities, and schools. The books born from the literary partnership between Nicola Gratteri and Antonio Nicaso—including "Blood Brothers," "The Malaplant," "The Mafia Disgusts," "White Gold," and "Accomplices and Guilty"—have been the focus of hundreds of reflections and discussions with students, just like those promoted by Paolo Siani after Giancarlo's murder.