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 was born in Rome in 1970. He is a scholar of ancient thought and editor of a new edition of Plato’s Symposium (Einaudi, 2009). His first novel, Sono comuni le cose degli amici, was finalist at Premio Strega 2010. In 2011 he wrote the novel-essay Il toro non sbaglia mai, published by Ponte alle Grazie. The narrative essay Le lacrime degli eroi (Einaudi, 2013) is about the weeping in homeric poems. In 2017 he wrote the novel È giusto obbedire alla notte (Ponte alle Grazie), also finalist at the Premio Strega. L’abisso di Eros, narrative essay on seduction from Homer to Plato, published by Ponte alle Grazie in 2018. His short stories have been published in main magazines, anthologies and e-books (such as Mai, 2014). He principally works with Il Venerdì di Repubblica and L’Espresso. He takes care of a taurine culture web: www.uominietori.it