Literature Festival 2009

Forty years after Armstrong’s historical first step, the 2009 Maxentius Festival wishes to celebrate their satellite with the oldest investigative instrument of all, literature. They have this year invited authors to present new texts inspired to the title Earth Moon, a never-ending echo, so as to receive from them the broadest possible range of perspectives. Every evening will therefore have its own subtitle to better define the literary angle offered on each occasion.

The lunar theme and titles of the events are not however the only novelties the Casa delle Letterature has introduced in this eighth edition of the Festival, because the musical contribution for the events are also new. They have organised a totally new musical counterpoint compared to the sounds used for previous editions. No longer jazz, but above all electronic music, keyboards, DJ sets and echoes of soundtracks. There will also be ten original trailers created, dedicated to all the authors hosted, and that, merging words and sound for a few minutes, will introduce each evening.

From the Universe to the Imperial Forums, from fairytales to poetry, from the bourgeois novel to the fantasy genre, from geography to science. Everything you know about the moon will be enriched by the tales of 16 narrators, among them one young neophyte, 8 poets and 2 scientists, always accompanied by live music, and in some cases introduced by actors. you will hear their stories about the moon in seven different languages: Greek, Italian, Spanish, English, French, Dutch and Swedish and the audience will as always have the Italian translations of their work on the large screens on the stage at Maxentius.

The great Italian and American literature of Mazzantini and Greer will inaugurate the Festival on May 26th.

On May 29th, as a poet and an author we will listen to the immensely famous singer-songwriter Capossela , together with his co-author Costantino “Cinaski”, in an evening that will start with a reading of a new text by the intense Roman author Albinati.

The third event will host the young but already very famous Italian fantasy author Troisi together with the “Swedish Stephen King” Lindqvist, and after the success of last year’s performance, on June 5th there will be a collective evening dedicated to poetry.

On June 9th the evening devoted to enchanters will see on stage the tales of Piumini and Vitali and then on June 11th an appointment with the great Andalusian writer Muñoz Molina and Italian author Cavazzoni, both writers whose work is filled with and marked by relations between the earth and the moon.

On June 16th we shall listen to “paperwork investigations” by Grisham and Markaris for an event devoted to thrillers; and on June 18th the “migrant writings” of young Siberian author, Turinese by adoption, Lilin, and the Iranian-Dutch Abdolah, both storytellers with harsh experiences in their homelands.

On the 23rd together with Swedish author Larsson and American Pearl we will discover a world of tales with a literary and historical backdrop, to finally come to our final evening on June 25th with two exceptional scholars, Rovelli e Tozzi, who will portray the Festival’s theme through the language of science explaining the innumerable relations between the earth and the moon. In paying homage to the lunar ‘elsewhere’ that has always enchanted us all, the Maxentius Festival will also be online, with digital horizons, in the clever fingers of selected bloggers.

The Festival will therefore be a cross-media one. It will be possible to follow events through groups and profiles updated constantly on Facebook (the network most shared by authors and publishers), Myspace (the network most shared by musicians and artists) and Twitter (the network for mobile phone users), where those interested will find updates, news and curiosities about each event. Perfectly in tune with the web 2.0, on YouTube, on the websites for the Festival and the Casa delle Letterature and on all the more important portals we will post the trailers and videos created for each author.

There are also to additional initiatives. The first as always is the programme for the event. The Festival’s newspaper in which young authors, who this year are the writers and contributors of the Roman magazine “Nuovi Argomenti”, present the authors hosted each evening. The second is a homage to Luigi Malerba, the great Italian writer who died recently, with an exhibition of photographs and documentaries and a Conference that will be held on June 4th and June 5th (from 10.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.) at the Casa delle Letterature, in Piazza dell’Orologio, with Umberto Eco as our special guest speaker.

PROGRAM

26 May

Authors: ANDREW SEAN GREER and MARGARET MAZZANTINI
Actors: Sergio Castellitto,

29 May

Authors:
EDOARDO ALBINATI and VINICIO CAPOSSELA
Musicians: Alessandro Stefana,

4 June

Authors:
JOHN AJVIDE LINDQVISTand LICIA TROISI
Actors: Marco Baliani
Musicians: Nuccini! From Giardini di Mirò

5 June

Authors: GIUSEPPE CONTE, MAURIZIO CUCCHI, MICHEL DEGUY, EUGENIO DE SIGNORIBUS, MARIANGELA GUALTIERI, JOLANDA INSANA
and ANTONIO RICCARDI
Musicians: Luna Revers,

9 June
Authors:
ROBERTO PIUMINI and ANDREA VITALI
Musicians: Giovanni Caviezel, Sulutumana Band

11 June

Authors: ANTONIO MUÑOZ MOLINA and ERMANNO CAVAZZONI
Actors: Laura Morante
Musicians: Vincenzo Vasi, Mirko Sabatini, Antonio Borghini

16 June

Authors:
JOHN GRISHAM and PETROS MARKARIS
Actors: Filippo Nigro, Isabella, Ragonese
Musicians: Calibro 3518 June
Authors: KADER ABDOLAH and NICOLAI LILIN
Actors: Eleonora Danco
Musicians: Raffaele Costantino23 June


23 June

Authors: BJÖRN LARSSON and
MATTHEW PEARL
Actors: Valentina Carnelutti, Alessandro Benvenuti
Musicians: Gianni Music Trio

25 June

Authors: CARLO ROVELLI and MARIO TOZZI
Musicians: port – royal

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INFO
The event's location: Basilica di Massenzio
Address: Basilica di Massenzio, Roman Forum
Entrance: Clivo di Venere Felice (Via del Fori Imperiali)
Schedule: 9 P.M.
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How to get there
Buses: 60, 75, 84, 85, 87, 117, 175, 186, 271, 571, 810, 850
Underground: Line B, Colosseo station

Free admittance for as long as there are seats available.
Other locations will be used if it should rain and will be indicated on each occasion on www.festivaldelleletterature.it