AUTHORS OF THESE LANDS

Thursday, October 23, 6:00 PM – Teatro Rasi

Authors “from these lands”: GIANLUCA GUALDUCCI (debut, Il vizio del lupo, Piemme); MONICA MANGANELLI (debut, Il suono dell’anima, IR-Independent Revolution); FABIO MONGARDI (Dove finisce il mare, Morellini)**

Gianluca Gualducci

Born in Bologna in the mid-1970s, he grew up on tagliatelle and adventure novels, developing an intense addiction to reading. He graduated from the newly established Communication Sciences program in Bologna, then dove into the improbable dream of a digital start-up in the high fashion sector: Yoox.com. His curiosity for exploring new environments led him to work with several major companies in the Emilia region (Coloplast, Ottica Avanzi, Ferrari), before returning to Yoox after ten years.

Throughout this time, he continued to nurture the dream of writing and publishing a story. His first step was into nonfiction, publishing a reflection that draws parallels between managerial practice and basketball (Il manager a canestro, Ultra Edizioni, 2019). From there, he gained confidence and ventured into fiction, making his debut with the crime novel Il vizio del Lupo (The Wolf’s Vice, Piemme Edizioni, 2025).

Fabio Mongardi

Born and residing in Faenza, he has published with Mobydick, Giraldi, Parallelo45, Scherz Verlag, S. Fischer Verlag in Germany, and now Morellini Editore. He wrote the theatrical drama La notte dei Manzoni (The Night of the Manzonis), based on his book Il caso Manzoni (The Manzoni Case), which was a finalist for the Mario Pannunzio Prize.

His theatrical adaptation Il Verme di Birkenau (The Worm of Birkenau), based on his novel Il verme (The Worm, 2018), was a finalist for the Antonio Conte Playwriting Prize in Pesaro in 2024 and was staged by the Bologna-based company FraMmenti di Scena.

For Morellini Editore, he published the novel Le carezze dei lampi (The Caresses of Lightning) in 2023, which received numerous special mentions and honors, and won the Senate Academy Prize at the Seneca Prize 2024 in Bari. Also with Morellini, he published Dove finisce il mare (Where the Sea Ends, 2025), a noir set in a bleak and decaying Rimini.

Monica Manganelli

Born in Parma in 1977, she earned a diploma in Architecture from the ‘P. Toschi’ Art Institute in 1996, and in 2002 graduated in Cultural Heritage Conservation from the University of Parma, later specializing in Theatrical Set Design at the Teatro Regio of Parma and in Computer Graphics and Digital Design.

She began collaborating on numerous opera and drama productions, first as an assistant and then as a set designer, and from 2002 to 2011 worked for major theaters including the Regio in Turin, La Fenice in Venice, Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Piccolo Teatro in Milan, and Teatro Stabile in Turin, collaborating with directors such as Luca Ronconi and Davide Livermore. After nearly a decade in theater, she shifted her focus from physical to virtual scenography, working with film productions and visual effects studios, mainly abroad, creating visual scenarios for films and commercials. One of her major past collaborations was on the film Cloud Atlas by the Wachowski sisters.

Il suono dell’anima (The Sound of the Soul, IR-Independent Revolution), a crime novel set in Turin with an unexpected protagonist, is her debut novel. It was selected at the MIA MARKET in Rome, the International Audiovisual Market, for potential film adaptation.