Event #10

Mazen Maarouf is a Palestinian-Icelandic writer, poet, translator and journalist. Born in Beirut to a family of Palestinian refugees, he lives between Beirut and Reykjavìk, where in 2011 he was hosted  by International Cities of Refuge. He has recently published his first short story collection titled “Jokes for the Gunmen”, which was nominated to Man Booker International 2019 and awarded the Al Multaqa Prize, the most relevant Arabic prize dedicated to short stories. It was published by Granta in the UK and at the end of August will be published in Italy by Sellerio.
ph. credits: Raphael Lucas

Matteo Nucci is author of novels, short stories, reportages and essays. He published the novels Sono comuni le cose degli amici (Ponte alle Grazie, 2009) and È giusto obbedire alla notte (Ponte alle Grazie, 2017) both finalist at Premio Strega, together with the novel-essay Il toro non sbaglia mai (Ponte alle Grazie, 2011) and L’abisso di Eros (Ponte alle Grazie, 2018). He translated the translation of Plato’s Symposium (Einaudi, 2009) and the narrative essays Le lacrime degli eroi (Einaudi, 2013) and Achille e Odisseo. La ferocia e l’inganno (Einaudi, 2020). His short stories have been published in collections and magazines, and his reportages on Il Venerdì di Repubblica and L’Espresso and online on minima et moralia. He is editor of a taurine culture website: www.uominietori.it. In September his latest novel Sono difficili le cose belle will be published by HarperCollins.