World Book Day: how the Strega Prize reflects Italy's reading culture

World Book Day: how the Strega Prize reflects Italy's reading culture

April 23 marks World Book Day, an opportunity to revisit the importance of reading and the written word. In Italy the Strega Prize, established in 1947 by Maria and Goffredo Bellonci, has long served a public role: highlighting novels that often mirror social change, cultural tensions and shifts in language.

More than an award, the Strega Prize functions as a cultural lens on tastes and narrative identity. Reviewing its winners is a way to traverse more than seventy years of Italian cultural history.

• Origins: created in 1947 to foster cultural renewal after the war.
• Role: a mirror of the present through selected and awarded works.
• Recent winners: Andrea Bajani (L'anniversario, 2025); Donatella Di Pietrantonio (L'età fragile, 2024); Ada D'Adamo (Come d'aria, 2023).
• Notable figures: Cesare Pavese, Umberto Eco, Elsa Morante, Primo Levi.

In a fast digital age, reading remains an act of depth. World Book Day therefore also serves as a concrete call to support literary quality: the Strega Prize continues to act as a compass for readers, publishers and critics.