Seven horror stories

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).

Screenwriter, director, author and film critic, he spent over 20 years as part of the artistic direction of the Giffoni Film Festival.
He made his debut in children's fiction in 2018 with the bestselling Petrademone trilogy (Mondadori), translated into several languages. Since then, he has explored a wide range of genres: from the historical fantasy of La notte delle malombre and Di fuoco e seta (both longlisted for the Strega Ragazzi Award and finalists in various literary prizes), to the horror of Goodwill and Nessuno verrà a prenderti, to nonfiction with the cinema guide 116 Movies to See Before You’re 16, and the genre-bending novel Dedalo & Dharma, all the way to social noir with Barriera (all published by the Mondadori Group).
The Reincarnation of the Klun Sisters and Try Not to Sleep are his adult fiction titles.
In 2022, he made his directorial and screenwriting debut in cinema with Il viaggio degli eroi, produced by Rai Cinema and awarded with record-breaking viewership on Rai1.

Born in Genoa, where she lives and writes books, she is a communication teacher and consultant who also runs creative writing workshops, including the online-only Lazy Writers Support Group (GSSP), founded in 2014. Among her novels are Qualcosa di vero (Feltrinelli, 2015), Vittoria (Feltrinelli, 2018), La banda degli Dei (Rizzoli, 2021 – Winner of the 2022 Bancarellino Selection Prize) and La palestra dei desideri (Rizzoli, 2025).
In 2023, together with 26 students and writer Alice Basso, she published the collective novel Un altro ballo ancora (Garzanti), which she conceived and coordinated.
She has also written stories for several anthologies, including “I bulli sono buoni solo cotti” in Racconti su Halloween(Gallucci, 2023) edited by Manlio Castagna; “L'ultimo giorno di scuola” in Racconti sotto l'ombrellone (Gallucci) edited by Marco Magnone; and “Tre fiori di cenere” in Sette storie horror (Battello a Vapore) edited by Manlio Castagna.

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).

Born in Ovada in 1977, Tommaso Percivale is an author of children's books. He lives and writes on an isolated hilltop surrounded by rocks, wind, woods and roe deer. Passionate about stories, sleight of hand, comics and games, he is a curious writer and, as such, tackles various genres, ranging from historical fiction to science fiction, from adventures to thrillers, even touching on the field of non-fiction. He writes to excite and stimulate deep reflections of an ethical, philosophical and social nature. Freedom, courage and rebellion are the themes he holds most dear.

Davide Sarti holds a degree in Japanese Language and Culture. He works as a manga translator from Japanese, as well as a writer and scriptwriter. He has published two novels for young readers and an essay exploring the graphic and narrative features of Japanese comics. As a scriptwriter, he collaborates with publishers such as Star Comics and Disney. His recent works include two short stories featured in the anthologies Storie da paura (Gallucci) and Sette storie horror(Piemme), both curated by Manlio Castagna.

Francesca Tassini is a screenwriter, author of documentaries, short films, stories, and mockumentaries. In 2004, she obtained a Diploma in Screenwriting from the Civica School of Cinema, TV, and New Media in Milan and began working as an assistant and collaborator for Sandrone Dazieri, a writer who was at the time the director of Mondadori's crime novels and is now the head editor for some Mediaset TaoDue TV series. In 2007, she won the First Prize for Best Original Screenplay at the International Film Festival of Bra with “Spighe.” While continuing to work on parallel writing projects, including several screenplays for feature films and a novel in development, she embarked on a career in copywriting: first for Mediaset RTI, then for a Swiss company, and later in an agency in Milan. She is passionately involved in protest and media guerrilla, particularly regarding international law, collaborating on various global visibility projects.