Another victory for Einaudi. Following the success of Michele Mari this summer, the winner of the Premio Strega Poesia 2026 is Carmen Gallo with Procne Machine (Einaudi), which received 33 votes out of 83 cast.
This year as well, the winning author was awarded, in addition to a monetary prize offered by the Strega Foundation, a copy of the work titled L’Infinito Premio Strega, created and donated by maestro Emilio Isgrò.
Following in the rankings are the other quintet of books: Isabella Leardini, Maniere nere (Mondadori) 18 votes; Vincenzo Ostuni, Faldone (Il Saggiatore) 17 votes; Federico Italiano, Godzilla e altre poesie (Guanda) 10 votes; Fabrizio Lombardo, La linea spezzata (Donzelli) 5 votes.
The ceremony of the fourth edition of Strega Poesia took place at the Casa dell’Architettura in Rome, within the monumental complex of the Acquario Romano (and was streamed live on RaiPlay).
“A kind of paradoxical classical monument”
The winning work was chosen by the Friends of Poetry, one hundred women and men of culture residing in Italy and abroad, among whom are the members of the Scientific Committee: Maria Grazia Calandrone, Andrea Cortellessa, Mario Desiati, Roberto Galaverni, Vivian Lamarque, Patricia Peterle, Stefano Petrocchi, Laura Pugno, Antonio Riccardi and Gian Mario Villalta.
It was the Scientific Committee that selected the final quintet, announced last May 16 at the Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino. This is the justification with which it admitted the winning work to the final:
Carmen Gallo, with Procne Machine, builds a solid, thematic volume, a kind of paradoxical classical monument, the sculpture in words of what is most delicate we know: flight. And its opposite, flight and song blocked by disenchantment in various forms of cruel beauty. Halfway through the book there appears a verse-essay on the act of flying, with words that rise from the lands of myth and glide over all the volatile, moved, intelligent literary matter, which — like all poetry — is a crossing of fear, a verbal fixation of a phobia.
During the evening, hosted by Carolina Di Domenico, three artists from the Italian music scene took the stage, capable of letting words, music and images dialogue: Ginevra Nervi, a composer and producer, opened with the audiovisual performance Beyond Appearances, drawn from the show The Disorder of Appearences. The singer-songwriter Cristina Donà performed Possibili superstiti, an advance preview that foreshadows the release of a new album of unreleased tracks, followed by Universo and Stelle buone. To close the evening was the rapper Rancore with three pieces – Fanfole, Roma non può and Codex Seraphinianus – taken from his latest album Tarek da colorare.
Attending the event were Giovanni Solimine and Stefano Petrocchi, respectively president and director of the Fondazione Maria e Goffredo Bellonci, and Giuseppe D’Avino, president of Strega Alberti Benevento, in their role as promoters of the Strega Prize in its various sections.
During the evening, the Strega Giovani Poetry Prize, offered by BPER Banca, was also awarded. Lorena De Vita, Sponsorships Office at BPER, announced the winner Isabella Leardini, chosen by a jury of students from about thirty high schools across Italy. Her collection of verses Maniere Nere (Mondadori) received 35 votes out of 128 cast. Also honored was student Klizia Maffei of the Istituto “Publio Elio Adriano” in Tivoli for the best review of Leardini’s book.
