25-28 May 2017
Italian author Viola Di Grado, who in 2011, when she was only 23, broke into Italian literary world with the novel 70% Acrylic 30% Wool, will take part in three events at the Sydney Writers’ Festival:
Viola Di Grado: Hollow Heart
25 May 2017, at 3.00 pm
Philharmonia Studio, Pier 4/5, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay
Italy’s 29-year-old rising literary star Viola Di Grado has bowled over fans with her captivating prose, vivid imagination and muses that tend along tragic lines. Her first novel, 70% Acrylic, 30% Wool, won Italy’s Premio Campiello Opera Prima and was shortlisted for the Strega Prize. In her second novel, Hollow Heart, a girl’s ghost tells the story of her life after her suicide. Hollow Heart was a finalist in the PEN America Literary Awards. Viola will be in conversation with Lex Hirst.
Entry ticket: $15
SWF Gala: Advice from Nasty Women
27 maggio 2017, ore 20.30
Sydney Town Hall, 483 George Street, Sydney
When Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton a ‘nasty woman’, he didn’t know the term would become a battle cry of his opponents. In a centrepiece event of the Festival, some of the world’s most acclaimed women take to the stage to find a way forward in our changing world. Festival favourites Brit Bennett, Durga Chew-Bose, Viola Di Grado, Anita Heiss, Chris Kraus and Nadja Spiegelman share cautionary tales, life lessons, wisdom and good advice. Hosted by Sophie Black.
Entry ticket: $25-$45
Sex, Blood and Death
28 maggio 2017, ore 13.30
Pier 2/3, The Loft, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay
When artist and poet Rupi Kaur in Milk and Honey uploaded a fully clothed self-portrait with a blood-stained crotch to Instagram, the social media site removed it – twice. The incident sparked headlines around the world and divided audiences. Brit Bennett’s The Mothers tackles abortion while Viola Di Grado’s novel Hollow Heart explores the aftermath of a suicide. These writers talk with Sofia Stefanovic about why the underlying forces of our lives – sex and death – are still taboo?
Entry ticket: $15-$20
Viola Di Grado is an award-winning novelist with works published in ten countries. Born in Catania, Italy, in 1987, she lived in England and Japan, and earned an MA in East Asian philosophies at the University of London. Acclaimed by Garzanti dictionary as “one of the most representative writers of the decade”, she was the youngest writer to be awarded the prestigious Campiello Opera Prima Award. Her debut book Settanta acrilico trenta lana (70% Acrylic 30% Wool) was also awarded the Rapallo Carige Award, it was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and it was a bestseller in both Italy and in the US. Her second book Cuore Cavo (Hollow Heart) was shortlisted for the PEN Literary Awards and the IPTA Italian Prose in Translation Award. In 2016 she chose to sign up with the controversial new publishing project founded by Umberto Eco and Elisabetta Sgarbi as a reaction to Mondadori’s acquisition of book publisher Bompiani (RCS Group), which resulted in forming a publishing colossus with no equivalent in the European landscape. Her third book, still unpublished in English-speaking countries, is called Bambini di ferro (Children of steel).
Information and bookings: www.swf.org.au