Valeria Parrella (born 1974)
is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

author, playwright and activist. In 2005, her collection of short stories ''Per grazia ricevuta'' (''For grace received'', English translation by Antony Shugaar, 2009) was shortlisted for the

Premio Strega The Strega Prize ( it, Premio Strega ) is the most prestigious Italian literary award. It has been awarded annually since 1947 for the best work of prose fiction written in the Italian language by an author of any nationality and first published ...

, Italy's most prestigious literature award, and it won the Premio Renato Fucini for the best short stories collection. In 2020, she was shortlisted for the Premio Lattes Grinzane.

Bibliography and publications

She was born in

Torre del Greco Torre del Greco (; nap, Torre d' 'o Grieco; "Greek man's Tower") is a ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Naples in Italy, with a population of c. 85,000 . The locals are sometimes called ''Corallini'' because of the once plentiful cora ...

in the

Province of Naples The Province of Naples ( it, Provincia di Napoli; nap, Pruvincia 'e Nàpule) was a province in the Campania region of southern Italy. In 2014/2015, the reform of local authorities (Law 142/1990 and Law 56/2014), replaced the Province of Naples ...

, in 1974. Parrella graduated in Classical Literature at

University of Naples Federico II The University of Naples Federico II ( it, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) is a public university in Naples, Italy. Founded in 1224, it is the oldest public non-sectarian university in the world, and is now organized into 26 depar ...

and later specialized in

Italian Sign Language Italian Sign Language or LIS (''Lingua dei Segni Italiana'') is the visual language used by deaf people in Italy. Deep analysis of it began in the 1980s, along the lines of William Stokoe's research on American Sign Language in the 1960s. Until t ...

. In 2003, she published her first work, the collection of short stories ''Mosca più balena'', for which she was awarded the

Premio Campiello The ''Premio Campiello'' is an annual Italian literary prize. A Jury of Literary Experts (''Giuria di letterati'' in Italian) identifies books published during the year and, in a public hearing, selects five of those as finalists. These books ar ...

in 2004 for the best debut, as well as the Premio Procida-Isola di Arturo-

Elsa Morante Elsa Morante (; 18 August 191225 November 1985) was an Italian novelist, poet, translator and children's books author. Her novel '' La storia'' (''History'') is included in the Bokklubben World Library List of 100 Best Books of All Time. Life a ...

. Her stories have appeared in the anthologies ''Pensa alla salute'' (2003), ''Bloody Europe'' (2004) and ''La qualità dell'aria'' (2004) and in numerous journals. Since 2007, she has also been writing theatre pieces, while in 2008, she published her first novel, ''Lo spazio bianco'', which won the Premio Letterario Basilicata. In 2009, the book was adapted into a movie with the same title, which was presented at the 66th

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

. Thanks to this film, Parrella won the award Premio Tonino Guerra for best character at the

Bari International Film Festival Bari International Film Festival (Bif&st) is an annual film festival held since 2009 in Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Se ...

2010. She has written several other short stories and novels, she collaborates with the newspapers ''

La Repubblica ''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnoldo ...

'' and ''

L'Espresso ''L'Espresso'' () is an Italian weekly news magazine. It is one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies; the other is ''Panorama''. Since 2022 it has been published by BFC Media. History and profile One of Italy's foremost newsmagazines, ''l ...

'' and has her own column in the magazine ''Grazia''.

Works

Short Stories *''Mosca più balena'', minimum fax, Roma. 2003 *''Per grazia ricevuta'', minimum fax, Roma, 2005, ''For grace received'', English translation by Antony Shugaar, Europa editions, 2009 *''Troppa importanza all'amore'', 2015 Novels *''Lo spazio bianco'',

Einaudi Einaudi is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Luigi Einaudi (1874–1961), Italian politician *Mario Einaudi (1905–1994), Italian political scientist, son of Luigi *Giulio Einaudi (1912–1999), Italian publisher, son o ...

, 2008 *''Ma quale amore'', Rizzoli, 2010 *''Lettera di dimissioni'', Einaudi, 2011 *''Tempo di imparare'', Einaudi, 2014 * ''Enciclopedia della donna. Aggiornamento'', Einaudi, 2017 *''Almarina'', Einaudi, 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parrella, Valeria Italian women short story writers 1974 births Living people People from Torre del Greco 21st-century Italian women writers 21st-century Italian novelists Italian women novelists 21st-century Italian short story writers Italian women dramatists and playwrights