Born in 1981 in Pordenone and now dividing her time between Milan and Trieste, where she took her degree in Philosophy, Federica Manzon won the Campiello Prize in 2024 with Alma, her fifth novel, in which the protagonist is ‘forced’ by her father’s will to return to her hometown (it’s not named, but it’s obviously Trieste) and thus come to terms with her complicated relationship with her roots. In the novel, identity, memory and history (personal, family, of a borderland and of the conflicts in the nearby Balkans) are intertwined, and Trieste becomes a vantage point from which to try to understand who we are and where our home is. The writer argues that “roots are not where we were born or where our bloodline takes us back to; roots are where we feel we belong.” Her passion for the world of books, which became her ‘second home’ early on as a girl, defines her career: from editor at Mondadori to working with the Scuola Holden in Turin and then with Pordenonelegge, to her current position as editorial director at Guanda.
The Trieste-born writer was awarded the Civiltà Veneta Award for her literary work, which skilfully explores the tensions between identity, memory and belonging. Trieste, the frequently mentioned border city, symbolizes the uncertainties and challenges of human existence
