Italy Writes 2024 Announces Winners of Creative Writing Contest

On May 29, JCU Writer in Residence Rachel Cantor joined the finalists of the Italy Writes 2024 Creative Writing Competition as Professor Andrew Rutt announced the winners at the online award ceremony.

Cantor shared how her experience of growing up in Rome influenced her writing and commended the students for their ability to express themselves so well in a language that is not their primary language.

Since 2011, JCU’s Italy Writes Competition has been promoting the discovery of the personal creative voice in Italian high school students whose primary language of study is not English. This year, 70 submissions were received from students representing eight high schools in Rome, Pomezia, Padula, Cerignola, Milan, and Venice.

To provide students with the opportunity to earn the Percorsi per le Competenze Trasversali e per l’Orientamento (PCTO) certification (a mandatory program that provides Italian high school students with practical work experience), the Italy Writes program made available to teachers a variety of resources to use as supplements to their own Creative Writing Workshops with their students. In addition to those provided by JCU’s Writing Center, resources for teachers included recorded Craft Talks on specific aspects of Creative Writing from the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program.

Special thanks go to historic external member of the panel of judges, Professor Hugh Ferrer, Associate Director of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, and his team for their contribution to the Resources for Teachers and Students. Recently retired, Professor Ferrer is also retiring from Italy Writes. He will now dedicate more time to his own creative writing. We sincerely appreciate all that Hugh and his colleagues at the IWP have done in favor of JCU’s Italy Writes and its mission to support Italian high school teachers and students over the years, and we wish him all the best. We look forward to continued collaboration between the IWP and Italy Writes.

Non-Fiction

• 1st place (tie) (€250 gift certificate) to India Leaci, 4th year at Liceo Scientifico Statale I. Newton in Rome, (Prof. Mary Lovaglio) for ‘Change’
• 1st place (tie) (€250 gift certificate) to Gianmarco Fedele, 5th year atLiceo ScientIfico Statale Camillo Cavour, in Rome, (Prof. Emanuela Ungaro) for ‘The Choice Of Not Choosing_ Analysis And Awareness In History’
• 3rd place (€100 gift certificate) to Vittoria Benincasa, 4th year atLiceo Classico/Linguistico Statale Tito Lucrezio Caro in Rome, (Prof. Serena Strianese) for ‘The Maze of Choices’

Honorable Mention to Flavia Rita Breglia, 4th year at Liceo Scientifico Carlo Pisacane in Padula (SA), (Prof. Angela Pastore) for Beyond the Veil of Time

Fiction

• 1st place (€300 gift certificate) to Giacomo Palladino, 5th-year at Istituto Superiore Liceo Scientifico Carlo Pisacane in Padula, (Prof. Angela Pastore) for ‘Wintry Will’
• 2nd place (€200 gift certificate) to Eva Pizzamano, 3rd-year atConvitto Nazionale Marco Foscarini di Venezia, (Prof. Laura Galante) for ‘Knight In Camouflaged Armour’
• 3rd place (€100 gift certificate) to Elena Sofia Battisti, 4th-year atLiceo Classico/Linguistico Statale Tito Lucrezio Caro in Rome, (Prof. Serena Strianese) for ‘What Needs To Be Remembered’

Congratulations to the winners and the many students and teachers across Italy who participate in Italy Writes each year!