Mountain stories

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.

Andrea Pau has been cluttering up Sardinia since 1981. He writes comics, children's novels, animated series, and books signed by other people. Among other things, he's written stories for Einaudi Ragazzi (Rugby Rebels series, 2011, illustrated by J.C. Vinci), DeAgostini (Dinoamici, 2013), Piemme (Beasts vs. Humans, 2024), Gallucci Editore (Enrico Fermi: The Atomic Genius, 2024), Sergio Bonelli Editore, and Disney Italia. But he prefers reading.

Giada Pavesi is a writer from Cremona, where she lives with her snobbish cat and a few too many plants, but whenever she can, she takes her yellow suitcase and travels. So she could read all day, she started studying foreign languages and literature at the University of Milan and then Leicester, in England. She has worked as a waitress, entertainer, translator, librarian and probably more.

Christian Antonini is an author of books for both children and adults, with a passion for history, adventure, and fantasy. He grew up surrounded by books, comics, and games. His novel Fuorigioco a Berlino (Giunti) won the Premio Bancarellino in 2017 and the Premio Il Gigante delle Langhe. In 2023, he was included in the Italian IBBY Honour List with La Musica nelle Ossa (Mondadori).

Valentina Federici lives in Switzerland, amidst the mountains and Lake Geneva, but grew up in Perugia in a house with only one children's book. As an avid reader, she solved this problem by inventing her own stories, a practice she continued even after becoming a lawyer. With Editrice il Castoro, she published Viaggio oltre l'ignoto and Post Tenebras. Morte alla strega, and she contributed to the short story collection Storie di montagna for Gallucci.

Christian Hill is an author and screenwriter. He has written many children’s stories including Il Ladro dei Ceili (The Sky Thief), Rizzoli, winner of the Cento Children’s Literature Prize in 2019, and Olga, una Storia di Pace in Tempo di Guerra (Olga, A Story of Peace in Wartime), Rizzoli, which entered the Italian IBBY Honour List in 2023. His works have been translated into several languages, some of which he can recognise and some of which he can’t. He loves music, role-playing games and his armchair.

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.

Giuditta Campello was born in 1987 and lives in the province of Varese. She writes books and stories for children and organizes reading and writing workshops in schools, libraries, and bookstores.

Alessandro Q. Ferrari, born in 1978 in Milan, is the author of successful novels and a screenwriter for comics, animated series, and TV shows. In 2019, he debuted with Le ragazze non hanno paura, which won the Premio Selezione Bancarellino and became a literary phenomenon. He also wrote the Star Wars graphic novel, which made it to the New York Times bestseller list.

Sara Mezzetti, born in Bologna in 1984, holds a degree in Communication Sciences and has been working in the social sector for over ten years, striving to make the world a better place, one day at a time. A lifelong passion for reading and writing led her to debut in 2024 with the book Piccola pirata all’arrembaggio, a funny and lively story. She loves stracciatella gelato and her favorite literary character is Anne of Green Gables.

An author whose books have been translated into 25 languages, in Italy Davide Morosinotto won the Super Andersen Prize in 2017 with Il Rinomato Catalogo Walker&Dawn (The Pocket Watch Gang), Mondadori, and the Strega Children’s Prize 2021 with La Più Grande (The Greatest), Rizzoli, with which he also entered the IBBY Honour List 2021. A finalist at the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis and winner of the Penzberger Urmel in Germany, he has also won the Prix des Bouquineurs en Seine and the Grand Prix des Lecteurs du Journal de Mickey in France, the Vlag en Wimpel and the Zilveren Griffel in Holland, the KJV in Flanders, the Protagonista Jove prize in Catalonia and he was nominated for the Carnegie Medal 2022 in the United Kingdom.

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).

Angelo Mozzillo was born in Naples and lives in Milan. He writes short stories, screenplays, reportage, and rhyming tales. He is the author of the humorous mystery series Detective Linus, the novel The Little Gatsby, and the hilarious travel diary The Woods Are Nice but I Wouldn’t Live There (all published by Il Battello a Vapore).
His recent picture books include I Wrote a Book for You (But This Isn’t It) (Camelozampa), An Important Secret(Minibombo), and Monsieur Claquette’s Sunday (Rizzoli). His book I Am a Leaf (Bacchilega Junior) won both the Andersen Prize and the Super Andersen Prize in 2021.

An author from the Marche region, specializing in books for children and young adults. She graduated in English Literature and later in Education Sciences at the University of Bologna, where she lives with her husband and son. She has written many books for international markets (France, Spain, China, and Korea). Over 40 of her works have been published with major Italian publishers. She has received important awards and recognition for the themes addressed in her books. Along with other writers, she is a member of ICWA, www.icwa.it, the Italian Association of Children's Writers.

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.

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.

Destiny Igiewe was born in 1999 and has always lived in the southern part of the Pontine region. It was only in 2020 that she approached the world of children's publishing, although she has always had a passion for writing.

Andrea Tullio Canobbio is a writer of stories for children and young adults, and has taught at university for many years. Recently, he has collaborated with the Multi, the Multimedia Museum of the Italian Language, and the Mundi, Italy’s National Museum of the Italian Language. He’s a passionate explorer of imaginary people and places. His most recent books include Chaos at Summer Camp (Lapis) and Cora in the Straight City (Erickson), co-written with Azzurra D’Agostino.

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.