Butterflies in Your Stomach

Elena Peduzzi lives in Milan. She holds a degree in Classical Literature with a specialization in archaeology and has worked in the editorial department of Mondadori's children's books division. She is a ghostwriter and novelist, with books published by major Italian publishing houses and translated into several languages. Her works include Uomini d’amore(Solferino), Amore, sesso e altre cose così co-authored with Fiore Manni (Rizzoli), Palladio e il segreto del volto (Emons Raga), and most recently Così come 6, co-written with Vernante Pallotti for the Viaggi Straordinari series.

A screenwriter, director, writer and film critic, Manlio Castagna has also been involved in the artistic direction of the Giffoni Film Festival for more than 20 years. He made his debut in children’s fiction in 2018 with the bestselling Petrademone trilogy (Mondadori), which has been translated into several languages. Since then, he has explored many different genres: from historical fantasy with La notte delle malombre (The Night of the Malombre) and Draconis Chronicon, to horror with Goodwill and Le Belve (The Beasts), passing through the “story” of cinema with the manual 116 film da vedere prima dei 16 anni (116 Films To See Before You’re 16) and the novel Dedalo & Dharma, up to social noir with Barriera (all for the Mondadori group). La reincarnazione delle sorelle Klun (The Reincarnation of the Klun Sisters) and Prova a non dormire (Try Not to Sleep) are his adult fiction books. In 2022, he made his film debut as a director and screenwriter with “Il viaggio degli eroi”, produced by Rai Cinema and rewarded with record audience numbers on Rai1.

Sonia Elisabetta Corvaglia was born in Salento and lives and works in Milan. With a passion for mythology, rock music, and cats, she teaches high school and works on projects for inclusion and reading promotion. She is the author of books for children and young adults, which have also been translated and published abroad. Her stories explore themes of diversity, adventure, and mystery, blending dark atmospheres with a touch of irony.

Mariachiara Lobefaro, originally from Puglia, honed her education in Bologna and now calls Florence home. Before teaching literature in high schools, she shaped her professional journey in the fields of publishing and journalism. She is one of the contributors to the anthology Le farfalle nello stomaco, published by Gallucci. With her novel Mestoli e misteri, she earned a spot among the finalists of the Premio Strega Ragazze e Ragazzi 2024, in the category for best debut.

Caterina was born in 1982 in Florence, and perhaps it is this very city that inspired her to immerse herself in the world of Dante, an author she studied extensively before moving on to reading contemporary writers. After working as an archivist, she found her path in the publishing world, joining the Treccani Giunti T.V.P. publishing house, where she has been working for years as a project manager, mainly focusing on secondary school textbooks. In 2011, she edited the collection of letters between poets Parronchi and Bellintani, titled Al vento della vita (Olschki), and in 2015, she collaborated with Giorgio Pinotti on the edition of La pelle by Curzio Malaparte for Adelphi. She is also the co-author, with Carlotta Cubeddu, of Buoni Cattivi propositi (Edizioni EL) and Le notti chiare (Il Castoro).

Marco Magnone is one of Italy's most acclaimed and sought-after children's authors by schools, festivals, and reading groups. Thanks to these engagements, he meets thousands of young readers every year. His stories, which have earned him two nominations for the Strega Ragazze e Ragazzi Prize, often blend various genres but share a common goal: to explore the profound meaning of growing up. He teaches narrative at the Holden School in Turin and at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan.

Lucia Stipari was born in Milan and has been working in the publishing field for many years. She’s a partner at Studio Pym, a creative agency that deals with books, graphics and communication, but since she lost herself among the branches of Book on a Tree, she has understood that the thing she likes most is writing.

Journalist, writer, television host, and author for Italian radio and TV, she has made her mark on the media landscape with a unique voice and countless creative projects. Throughout her career, she has contributed to prestigious magazines and newspapers such as Sipario, Pianotime, Il Giornale della Musica, L'Unità, Il Secolo XIX, and L'Espresso. Since 1990, she has written for the cultural pages of La Repubblica and Il Venerdì, while also being one of the hosts of the popular radio show Fahrenheit on Radio Tre. Her blog Lipperatura, a beloved digital space among readers, serves as a go-to reference for those wishing to explore literature and the worlds surrounding it, with a sharp and passionate perspective.

Barbara Gozzi is a senior editor, author, creative, ghostwriter and much more. She coordinates publishing projects and various types of content, curates training courses and has a hand in events, initiatives and, before the camerawork, in outlines and scripts.

Pierdomenico Baccalario has been writing children’s novels since 1997, when he won the Il Battello a Vapore literary prize with La strada del Guerriero (The Way of the Warrior) using his neighbour’s name. Since then, his bestsellers have been written under as many pseudonyms (the best known being Ulysses Moore and Irene Adler), translated into more than thirty languages and published with major Italian and foreign publishers. He has collaborated with Lucca Comics & Games for more than twenty years, has written for Repubblica, and is a columnist for the newspaper Corriere della Sera’s La Lettura literary supplement. In 2014, he founded the Book on a Tree creative agency in London.

Paola Zannoner was born in Grosseto in 1958 and now lives in Florence, the city where she grew up and graduated in Literature. After her studies, she pursued various professions: librarian, translator, editor, and director of school fiction series. Her writing career began in the early 2000s, and since then she has written numerous short stories and novels for readers of all ages, from children to teenagers. Thanks to her talent, she has received several awards and recognitions, including the Bancarellino in 2004 for *La linea del traguardo*. Recently, she has published books for young readers with De Agostini, such as Rocco + Colomba, a love story set during the Risorgimento, Voglio fare la giornalista, and Specchio, specchio, an interesting modern reinterpretation of traditional tales, exploring the theme of the double.

Carlotta Cubeddu is an Italian writer and educator. Passionate about popularisation and novels, she manages to combine both her passions. As a reading facilitator and author of the book Penso, Parlo, Posto (To Post or Not to Post), Il Castoro, translated into Russian and Spanish, she also dedicates part of her time to training teachers and parents, sharing her experience with them.

Vernante Pallotti (Verona, 1998) is a writer, screenwriter, and co-founder of the animation studio Gastonia Motion. Her name, given by mistake, means "She who brings spring." Vernante believes that the smartest thing to do today, alongside planting trees, is to prioritize children and teenagers. She does this by writing for them. Her publications include the novels Banshee: gli amori impossibili non muoiono mai (Piemme), Scilla Zanne di Serpente (Il Battello a Vapore), Lidia Poët e il segreto del collegio (Il Battello a Vapore), Festival con Delitto (Il Battello a Vapore), and Così come 6 (Viaggi Straordinari).

Gisella Laterza lives in Bergamo, or more precisely, in a downtown café where she spends her time writing. When not writing, she teaches Italian and Latin at a high school and leads creative writing courses for students aged 6 to 99. She has published novels, short stories for school anthologies, biographies, and a children's retelling of the Divine Comedy (Einaudi Ragazzi). Among her most successful series is "Tre amiche per un diario" (Il Battello a Vapore). Under the pseudonym Ella Archer, she wrote "Abissi e incanto," a fantasy romance currently being translated into French, Dutch, and Spanish. This work was a finalist for the ILfest award (Munich, 2025) and the Romance Book Party Awards (Naples, 2025).

Eleonora Babbo and Vincenzo Galli started out as TV screenwriters and story editors (I Cesaroni, Alex & Co). Together, they write projects for a variety of audiences. They’re the creators of I Resistosauri, a series about baby dinosaurs published by Edizioni Castoro. Their work spans from fun, adventurous books for early readers to stories for young adults, including science education for kids and even romance novels for adults. When they’re not publishing under their own names, they use pseudonyms or ghostwrite for others. It’s no surprise they often forget what their own names are!

Vincenzo Galli and Eleonora Babbo started out as TV screenwriters and story editors (I Cesaroni, Alex & Co). Together, they write projects for a variety of audiences. They’re the creators of I Resistosauri, a series about baby dinosaurs published by Edizioni Castoro. Their work spans from fun, adventurous books for early readers to stories for young adults, including science education for kids and even romance novels for adults. When they’re not publishing under their own names, they use pseudonyms or ghostwrite for others. It’s no surprise they often forget what their own names are!

Azzurra D’Agostino was born and lives in a small village in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. She has published several poetry collections—winning the Carducci Prize and the Ciampi Valigie Rosse Prize, and being shortlisted for the Viareggio-Repaci Prize—and writes for the theatre, both for adults and children.
She has published numerous picture books and edited When I Grow Up, I Want to Be a Poet, an anthology of poems written by children during workshops held across Italy. Her novels for young readers include The Garden of Wishes, Ghost Light – Emerging from the Dark Together, Cora in the Straight City, and The Night I Killed Kurt Cobain.
She also created the palmistry-inspired card deck Oracle of Destiny and edited the dreamlike-anthropological book Dreams and Symbols. In addition to writing, she leads poetry workshops for people of all ages.

Lorenzo Rulfo was born in Turin in 1985 and splits his time between Rome and Alba, a city he has chosen as his home. Raised in a family of journalists, he spent his childhood between school and theater classes. At the Avogadro Scientific High School in Turin, perhaps to follow in his brother Simone's footsteps, he finds himself in an environment that doesn't suit him. Thus, he decides to pursue his passion for art and entertainment by enrolling in the Accademia del Teatro Nuovo in Turin. It is during this time that RAI offers him a major opportunity: a leading role. He begins his acting career at a young age, works as an assistant to some of Italy's greatest directors, and writes numerous theater plays. During his years as a student-actor, he discovers an unrelenting passion for narrative, which leads him to win the Biennale dei Giovani Artisti del Mediterraneo – narrative section (Bari 2006 – Piemonte section). He is also an author for the renowned "Quelli della Rodari" series and serves as general manager of Book on a Tree.

Marco Ponti is a writer, director and screenwriter. His films include the cult movie Santa Maradona (winner of two David di Donatello awards), the great successes with audiences Io che amo solo te and La cena di Natali based on the novels by Luca Bianchini, and La Bella Stagione (winner of a Nastro d’Argento), created with Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Mancini and the Sampdoria players who achieved the epic feat of winning the football championship in 1991 and remained lifelong friends. He has also published the novels Alice resta a casa (Alice Stays at Home) with Manlio Castagna, winner of the Watty 2020 for the best Young Adult story on Wattpad, R – Ribelli, revoluzione e rock ‘n’ roll (R – Rebels, Revolution and Rock ‘n’ Roll) with Christian Hill, and the ghost book series that began with Ombre che camminano and continues with La città delle streghe.