Stefano Benni (born 12 August 1947) is an Italian

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

writer, poet and journalist. His books have been translated into around 20 foreign languages and scored notable commercial success. 2.5 million copies of his books have been sold in Italy.

Biography

Benni has written many successful novels and anthologies, among which are ''Bar Sport, Elianto, Terra!, La compagnia dei celestini, Baol, Comici spaventati guerrieri, Saltatempo, Margherita Dolcevita'' and ''Il bar sotto il mare''. He has also worked with the weekly magazines ''L'espresso'' and ''Panorama'', and with the satirical ''Cuore'' and ''Tango'', the monthly magazines ''Linus'' and ''Il Mago'' (where he began and published in installments part of ''Bar Sport''), and the newspapers ''La Repubblica'' and ''il manifesto''. He also wrote television sketches for

Beppe Grillo Giuseppe Piero "Beppe" Grillo (; born 21 July 1948) is an Italian comedian, actor, blogger, and politician. He has been involved in politics since 2009 as the co-founder (together with Gianroberto Casaleggio) of the Italian Five Star Movement ...

at the beginning of Grillo's career, and one of these sketches – called "Pietro Longo=P2" – caused the Psdi to ask the RAI commission to remove Grillo from RAI TV; their request was denied. In 1989, with Umberto Angelucci, Benni directed the film ''Musica per vecchi animali'', adapted from his book ''Comici spaventati guerrieri'', with the actors

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, and Viola Simoncioni. Two years before that he was also the screenwriter of another film, ''Topo Galileo'' by Francesco Laudadio, starring his friend

and with music by

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and

Mauro Pagani Mauro Pagani (born 5 February 1946) is an Italian musician and singer. Pagani was born in Chiari, Lombardy. A multi-instrumentalist, he made his debut in the music world in 1970 as violinist and founding member of the progressive rock band Pre ...

. With the jazz musician

Umberto Petrin Umberto Petrin (born 1960) is an Italian jazz pianist, composer and poet. He devoted himself to the study of the piano at the age of 12. After studying Chemistry, he graduated in Piano at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, where he is now P ...

, he wrote ''Misterioso. Viaggio nel silenzio di Thelonius Monk''. His novels contain, within imaginary worlds and situations, a strong satire of Italian society over the last few decades. His writing style includes many puns, neologisms and parodies of other literary styles.Stefano Benni biography
International Literature Festival Berlin. In January and February 2010, he presented the event ''Bennac'', a meeting between himself and the French writer

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Bibliography

* ''Bar Sport'' (1976) * ''Prima o poi l'amore arriva'' (1981) * ''Terra!'' (1983), translated into English by Annapaola Cancogni (1985) (

Pantheon Books Pantheon Books is an American book publishing imprint with editorial independence. It is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.Random House, Inc. Datamonitor Company Profiles Authority: Retrieved 6/20/2007, from EBSCO Host Business Source ...

) * ''Stranalandia'' (1984) * ''Comici spaventati guerrieri'' (1986) * ''Il bar sotto il mare'' (1987) * ''Baol'' (1990) * ''Ballate'' (1991) * ''La compagnia dei Celestini'' (1992) * ''L'ultima lacrima'' (1994) * ''Elianto'' (1996) * ''Bar Sport Duemila'' (1997) * ''Blues in sedici'' (1998) * ''Teatro'' (1999) * ''Spiriti'' (2000) * ''Dottor Niù, corsivi diabolici per tragedie evitabili'' (2001) * ''Saltatempo'' (2001), translated into English by Antony Shugaar as ''Timeskipper'' (2008) * ''Achille pie' veloce'' (2003) * ''Margherita Dolcevita'' (2005) * ''Misterioso : viaggio nel silenzio di Thelonious Monk'' (2005) (includes DVD) * ''La grammatica di Dio'' (2007) * ''Pane e Tempesta'' (2009) * ''Le Beatrici'' (2011) * ''La Traccia dell'Angelo'' (2011) * ''Di tutte le ricchezze'' (2012) * ''La bottiglia magica'' (2016) * ''Prendiluna'' (2017) * ''Giura'' (2020)

Works in English

* ''Timeskipper,'' translator Antony Shugaar, Europa Editions, New York, 2008. * ''Margherita Dolce Vita'', translator Antony Shugaar, Europa Editions, New York, 2008. * ''The story of Cyrano de Bergerac,'' Pushkin Children's Books, London, 2014

References

External links

Official website (Italian)

* 1947 births Living people Writers from Bologna Italian journalists Italian male journalists Italian male writers Italian humorists Italian satirists {{Italy-writer-stub