An article by: Editorial board

President of the Conoscere Eurasia Italian Association, Professor Antonio Fallico: “In everyday practice, the right to dissent and criticism is constantly trampled upon. International law is virtually ignored. The boundaries between true and false are all but erased. The semantic roots of the concepts of ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ have been corroded by wormholes, and the definitions of ‘right’ and ‘left’ have lost their historical meaning.”

In a world increasingly influenced by artificial, or better say “contrived” intelligence, the Rainbow Prize seeks to preserve the craftsmanship of writers and translators in its original form, bridging the gap between two cultures with thousands of years of history – Russian and Italian

The prestigious Russian-Italian literary prize “Raduga” (Rainbow) turns 15 years old. On October 18 in Moscow, a stone’s throw from the Kremlin, in the GUM congress hall on Red Square, the 15th award ceremony of the Rainbow-2024 prize for young writers and translators took place. The unique award was established in 2010 by the Conoscere Eurasia Association jointly with the A.M. Gorky Literary Institute (Moscow) with the aim to strengthen cultural and literary ties between Italy and Russia, as well as to encourage the work of young Russian and Italian writers and translators between the ages of 18 and 35, giving them the opportunity to find publishers for their works and to introduce them to the widest possible range of readers of the two countries.

Four winners, two in each of the categories – Young Writer of the Year and Young Translator of the Year in both languages – were chosen this year from 10 finalists in a competition that attracted 359 applicants. All decisions were made jointly by the Italian and Russian juries, consisting of authoritative representatives of the two countries’ world of literature and publishing. As was noted during the selection process, all participants had in common the ability to feel acutely the surrounding reality and the desire to develop their special writing gift. In a world increasingly influenced by artificial intelligence, the Rainbow Prize seeks to preserve the craftsmanship of writers and translators in its original form, bridging the gap between two cultures with thousands of years of history – Russian and Italian. In addition to a cash award, winners receive the opportunity to have their work published in the Prize’s bilingual literary anthology, along with a short biographical note, a photograph, and a critical review.

Professor Antonio Fallico, the founder of the Rainbow Literary Raduga Award and president of the Conoscere Eurasia Italian association

Geopolitical tensions, which recently have greatly increased the risks of global nuclear war, could not but affect the creativity of the participants. As Professor Antonio Fallico (photo), the founder of the Rainbow Literary Award and president of the Conoscere Eurasia Italian association, stated in his speech at the solemn award ceremony, “when reading the works of the Rainbow 2024 contest finalists, I was seized by a strange feeling. As if the finalist authors, living far away from each other, some in Italy, others in Russia, not knowing one another, experienced – at least some of them – a shared feeling of confusion. As if they felt lost, strayed in the modern world around them, unable to gain a firm foothold of certainty, even if virtual and illusory. Uncertainty and loneliness dominated their work. Loneliness in the wilderness, despite the obsessive and deafening interconnectedness of our time.”

The President of the Conoscere Eurasia Association in a brilliant historical reminiscence compared the past, by the way, not so distant, with today: “I lived in post-war Sicily, devastated by Anglo-American allied bombing, ruled with the blessing of the Mafia, and populated by poor, often illiterate people with no hope of finding work. And yet the guys of my generation really wanted change and a new beginning. They passed on their courage and enthusiasm to so many people who alone, in the face of having to fight for survival, without that enthusiasm, might not have lifted a finger to make a difference. As young people, we were active in the anti-capitalist protests of the late 1960s, along with workers and students. We demanded a new political order, a new quality of work. It was a vibrant culture combined with economic and social development to meet human needs and inalienable human rights.”

Today, that world no longer exists: “The world in which we live today,” Professor Fallico emphasized, “endures scandalous social inequalities, despite the fact that it has experienced phenomenal economic and technological development in the last thirty years. It has become predominantly virtual, often denying the power of reason, science, and events. And it doesn’t trust the very human ability to understand things.”

In this world, which more and more people refuse to accept, “the word is often used as tinsel, often contradicting its meaning. It has even gotten to the point where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to those who started the war,” Professor Fallico noted, comparing young authors to people “who find themselves in a boat in the middle of a storm, not understanding where the shore is, what course to follow, not seeing a lighthouse or the lights of a saving port.”

According to Professor Fallico, “human creativity, to which we owe our history and our existence, is today incredibly devalued by a modern myth: the so-called artificial (or, perhaps more accurately, invented) intelligence. It is, contrary to scientific research to date, according to the same myth, destined to reach the human level and become a super-intelligence in the near or distant future.”

Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Italy Alexei Paramonov

In his congratulatory speech, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Italy Alexei Paramonov emphasized that in times of great international tension, in times of sanctions, embargoes, and bans, “when airplanes don’t fly,” it is literature, it is art that builds bridges between peoples, especially between the peoples of Russia and Italy, linked by millenia of history. The Rainbow is known to have the shape of a bridge. “This is why,“ emphasized Ambassador Paramonov, “I sincerely wish the Rainbow Prize to expand the scope of its so important activities, to remain a place of attraction for talented Russian and Italian youth, to personify the bridge between Russia and Italy.”

The Rainbow literary prize is very important, primarily because it helps young authors to find a place in the immortal literature and culture of Italy and Russia. This was stated by one of the most famous Russian directors and a great connoisseur of Italian culture Karen Shakhnazarov, according to whom, thanks to the Rainbow competition, there is “hope that the young talents who have become today the winners of the prestigious literary prize, will soon become new and famous authors of works that will form the basis of new scripts for theater and movies not only in Russia and Italy, but also around the world.”

The Italian winner, writer Matilda Balboni

So, the Rainbow Prize is now in its 15th edition, and several thousand young writers and translators have participated in it, whose best works have been included in the fifteen anthologies that we have published annually in Italian and Russian since 2009, so that not only various Italian and Russian publishers will know about them, but also, above all, the general reading public interested in the cultural dialog between Italy and Russia.

The prize is held annually, and during its existence it has become a kind of long-living among similar literary competitions. As already mentioned, this time 359 people took part in the event, among which the finalists were determined, five in each of the two categories (Young Writer and Young Translator), from the Italian and Russian sides.

This year the Italian National Jury is composed of: the President of the Jury Carlo Feltrinelli (President of the Feltrinelli Group and the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation), Matteo Cavezzali (writer, journalist, founder, and art director of the ScrittuRa literary festival held in Ravenna), Andrea Tarabbia (writer, winner of the 2019 Campiello Prize), Stefano Garzonio (specialist in Russian language and literature, taught at the University of Pisa), Maria Pia Pagani (professor at the Frederick II University of Naples, author of studies on Russian theater) and Giuliano Pasini (communications specialist, writer).

The Russian national jury is composed of: Boris Tarasov, Chairman of the Jury (Professor, Head of the Department of Foreign Literature, A.M. Gorky Literary Institute), Nina Litvinets (writer, literary critic, translator), Andrei Gelasimov (writer, playwright, associate professor at the A.M. Gorky Literary Institute), Yevgeny Solonovich (poet, translator, for many years taught at the A.M. Gorky Literary Institute), Alexei Varlamov (writer, philologist, rector of the A.M. Gorky Literary Institute), and Anna Yampolskaya (translator, philologist, lecturer at the A.M. Gorky Literary Institute).

The finalists in the Young Writer category on the Italian side were Elisa Agostinelli, Matilda Balboni, Antonia Cofano, Arianna Lombardo, and Michele Sella; in the Young Translator category, the finalists were Eleonora Bianchi, Sara Ceruso, Martina Fattore, Giovanni Polizzi, and Sara Vaccarini.

On the Russian side, the ones making it to the final were young writers Daria Andreeva, Evgenia Zobnina, Evphrosinia Kapustina, Yvetta Melikyan, Margarita Timofeyenko (Margo Gritt); finalists among young translators were Olga Balyaeva, Alexei Ignatov, Ekaterina Lobkova, Maria Trofimova, and Maria Tsvetkova.

And now came the solemn moment of announcing the names of the four winners. This year, the winner of the Rainbow Prize 2024 in the category Young Italian Writer was Matilda Balboni (photo)with her story “Red Little Cars.” In the Young Italian Translator category, the winner was Giovanni Polizzi for his translation of the story “Modigliani’s Eyes and Van Gogh’s Ears.” The winner in the Young Russian Writer category was Margarita Timofeyenko, who writes under the pseudonym Margo Gritt, for her story “The Little Secret,” and the winner in the Young Russian Translator category was Ekaterina Lobkova, for her translation of the story “Red Little Cars” by another winner of the competition, Matilda Balboni.

Conoscere Eurasia is a trusted intermediary in relations between Italy, the European Union, the Russian Federation, the Eurasian Economic Union

The promoter of the literary contest is Conoscere Eurasia is a non-profit association founded in 2007 under the Honorary Consulate of the Russian Federation in Verona. Serves as an intermediary in relations between Italy, the European Union, the Russian Federation, the Eurasian Economic Union (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan). Conoscere Eurasia seeks to strengthen cooperation with the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan), in which Russia has always played a prominent role, as well as with the countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (full members – China, India, Pakistan, observer countries – Iran and Mongolia). The members of the Conoscere Eurasia Association are individuals, businesses, and institutions located in Europe and Eurasia.

Conoscere Eurasia is a strategic partner of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, organized by Roscongress, and co-promoter of the Eurasian Economic Forum in Verona, which brings together leading international speakers, entrepreneurs, and political institutions. Among the events promoted and organized by the Association are international economic seminars on innovation, macroeconomic policy, oil and gas, transport, infrastructure development, and the global economy. In order to popularize Russian culture and promote intercultural exchange between Italy and Russia, Conoscere Eurasia holds a film forum “Meet the Russian Culture” in Verona, the Russian-Italian literary prize “Rainbow” for young writers and translators, and organizes Russian language courses. On the initiative of the Association, a Russian school for children and youth Russica was created, and the headquarters of the Russian World center in Verona holds Italy’s largest library of publications in Russian language.

Giornalisti e Redattori di Pluralia

Editorial board