In anticipation of the International Book Day, sponsored by UNESCO, on April 23, 2021, and in memory of the ancient Etruscan and Roman festival of Vinalia (which fell on the same day), Podere La Regola organizes the award La Regola della letteratura, in collaboration with the Scuola di scrittura creativa Genius and the Golden Book Hotel Association.
It is a literary competition for unpublished short stories, established to foster creativity and artistic expression in contemporary narrative and to bring emerging talented writers to light. There is no restriction on the possible theme or genre of the submitted stories, provided they are written in Italian. The competition is open to Italian and foreign authors of any age, as long as they submit a story written in Italian, with a maximum length of 10,000 characters, spaces included.
THE FINALISTS
After an unusually long selection process due to the pandemic, as those who have been following us since last year know, the “Premio La Regola della Letteratura (edition 2020/2021)”, organized by Podere La Regola, Golden Book Hotel Association, and Scuola Genius, finally announced the first results. The jury of the Genius School teachers selected the ten finalist stories. Additionally, Podere La Regola decided to award two special mentions among the stories that did not make it to the final.
From today, it will be possible to download and read the works of the ten finalists.
The three absolute winners will be chosen from the ten finalists by the jury of authors during an event in the first half of October 2021.
Ecco i dieci racconti finalisti del concorso “La Regola della Letteratura”:
“Il Navajo e lo Yankee” by Gabriele Andreani
“La vendemmia” by Lella Cervia
“La cartella elettronica” by Michela Di Renzo
“Mama-nommama” di Giacomo Marchi
“Era la mattina dell’alluvione” by Andrea Marchetti
“Scambiada” by Claudia Mereu
“La sassata” by Francesco Padùla
“La voce” by Michele Protopasas
“Mani” by Sabrina Silvestri
“A mia figlia mai nata” by Giordano Vecchietti
SPECIAL MENTION BY PODERE LA REGOLA
to “Il mistero del tesoro di Belora” by Andrea Nacci, for effectively and stylishly representing the cultural and artistic values of the territory.
“Il mistero del tesoro di Belora” by Andrea Nacci
SPECIAL MENTION OF THE LA REGOLA DELLA LETTERATURA
“I colori di una donna” by Maria Meini
Additionally, the story “Finestre alte” by Anna Elisa De Gregorio, who passed away during the selection process, receives a further special mention.
THE PRIZES
1st place: €500 cash prize offered by Podere La Regola, commemorative plaque, 3L Magnum bottle of La Regola, creative writing workshop offered by Scuola Genius.
2nd place: commemorative plaque, 1.5L Magnum bottle of La Regola, stay offered by Golden Book Hotel Association and creative writing workshop offered by Scuola Genius.
3rd place: commemorative plaque, 0.75L bottle of La Regola 3 bicchieri Gambero Rosso, creative writing workshop offered by Scuola Genius.
The results will be published on the Story Genius website: www.storygenius.it. By the end of June 2021, the ten finalist stories will be selected and published on the Cantina La Regola website: https://www.laregola.com/.
The absolute winners, i.e., the authors of the three most deserving stories as judged by the jury of authors, will be announced at the award ceremony to be held in the first half of October 2021, in person and safely, at Cantina La Regola (Altagrada, SR68 – Riparbella, Pisa, 56046).
THE JURIES
teachers at Scuola Genius, will select a group of 10 finalists, which will then be reviewed by the Jury of Authors, composed of writers Simona Baldelli, Rossana Campo, and Andrea Carraro, together with Mauro Gabba (Golden Book Hotel Association), Dario Danti (councilor for culture, Comune di Volterra), Flavio Nuti (Podere La Regola), and Paolo Restuccia (Scuola Genius), who will determine the top three winners.
If the juries do not consider the texts submitted to Scuola Genius worthy enough, the prizes may not be awarded.
THE COMPETITION
The competition is open to Italian and foreign authors of any age, provided they submit a story written in Italian, with a maximum length of 10,000 characters, spaces included.
Submissions must be sent by midnight, April 23, 2021, to the email address genius@storygenius.it. The email must include proof of payment of €25 as registration for the Premio La Regola della Letteratura to the bank account of Podere La Regola, IBAN: IT93Y0637071140000010001320, with the reason: iscrizione premio.
PARTECIPATION RULES
Submitted stories must be unpublished works, in prose and in Italian, not covered by copyright, and authors must accept that their works may be published on the Podere La Regola website or in a possible future publication, without any claim to copyright for this single publication.
“Unpublished works” means stories never previously published in print collections by a national publisher. The rights of the stories remain with the authors for all other purposes.
Each author may submit only one story.
For minors, parental authorization on plain paper, signed and attached to the submission email, is required.
Participation in the competition implies full acceptance of these rules.