Giorgio van Straten (born 1955) is an Italian writer and manager of arts organizations. His first novel ''Generazione'' was published in 1987. In 2000 he won four literary prizes for ''Il mio nome a memoria'', published in English as ''My Name, A Living Memory'' (2003), the story of his Jewish-Dutch family from 1811 to our days. That same year he was awarded the Grand Official Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

Writing career

Van Straten translated from English into Italian ''The Secret Garden'' by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Giunti, 1992),''The Call of the Wild'' by Jack London (Giunti, 1994),''The Jungle Book'' by Rudyard Kipling (Giunti, 1995) and ''The Pavilion on the dunes'' of Robert Louis Stevenson (The Unit, 1997). He is one of the directors of the Italian literary magazine ''Nuovi Argomenti''. For musical theater he wrote ''Tre voci'' for voice, string orchestra, percussion and tape, music by Giorgio Battistelli, commissioned by the Sagra Musicale Umbra (First performance: Assisi, 1996); ''Auf den Marmorklippen'' (On the Marble Cliffs), from the novel by Ernst Jünger, music by Giorgio Battistelli (First performance: National Theatre, Mannheim, 2002); ''Open Air'', music of Andrea Molino, commissioned by the Società Aquilana dei Concerti (First performance: L'Aquila, 2012); '' Here there is no why'', multimedia music theater project by Andrea Molino (first performance at the Teatro Comunale, Bologna, 2014).

Books written

* ''Generazione'' (1987) *
Hai sbagliato foresta
' (1989) *
Ritmi per il nostro ballo
' (1992) *
Corruzione
' (1995) *
Il mio nome a memoria
' (2000) English translation "''My name a living memory''" *
L'impegno spaesato
' (2002) *
La verità non serve a niente
' (2008) *
Storia d'amore in tempo di guerra
' (2014) *
Storie di libri perduti
' (2016) English translation "''In search of lost books''" (Pushkin Press, 2017) * ''Una disperata vitalità'' (2022)

Management career

From 1985 to 2002 van Straten was the chairman of the

Orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

della Toscana. From 1997 to 2002 he was on the board of directors of the

Biennale di Venezia The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

and 1998 to 2002 he also served as president of AGIS, the Italian association for the performing arts. From 2002 to 2005, Van Straten was general director of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. From 2005 to 2008 he managed Palazzo delle Esposizioni e Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome. From 2009 to 2012 he was on the board of directors of the

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

. From 2015 to 2019 he was the director of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York. Since 2020 he is the President of FAF Toscana - Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia.

Honors and awards

* Il Ceppo Prize (1989) * Castiglioncello Prize (1995) * Grand Official Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2000) * Adei-Wizo Prize (2000) * Procida-Isola di Arturo-Elsa Morante Prize (2000) *

Viareggio Prize The Viareggio Prize ( it, Premio Viareggio, italic=no or ) is an Italian literary prize, first awarded in 1930. Named after the Tuscan city of Viareggio, it was conceived by three friends, , Carlo Salsa and Leonida Rèpaci, to rival the Milanes ...

(2000) * Zerilli-Marimò Prize for Italian Fiction (2000)"NYU's Zerilli-Marimo Prize for Italian Fiction Awarded to Giorgio Van Straten for Il Mio Nome a Memoria."
''The Italian Voice'' 26 October 2000. Partially retrieved 2008-10-07. *

Giacomo Matteotti Giacomo Matteotti (; 22 May 1885 – 10 June 1924) was an Italian socialist politician. On 30 May 1924, he openly spoke in the Italian Parliament alleging the Fascists committed fraud in the recently held elections, and denounced the violence ...

Prize (2015)

References

External links

Giorgio van Straten
at Festivalleteratura

Giorgio van Straten, in Andrea Kerbaker, Belfagor (Casa Editrice Leo S. Olschki ), Vol.63, No.4 (31 luglio 2008), pp. 431–446 {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Straten, Giorgio 1955 births English–Italian translators Italian dramatists and playwrights Italian translators Living people Writers from Florence Viareggio Prize winners Italian male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Italian novelists 20th-century Italian male writers 21st-century Italian novelists Italian male novelists Italian people of Dutch-Jewish descent 21st-century Italian male writers Italian literary critics