There are 135 books, published between January 2022 and February 2023, which compete for the first edition of the Strega Poesia Prize. Of these, 82 are from poets and 53 from poetesses. Among the authors – the youngest was born in 2003, the oldest in 1939 – include the 1979 Witch Narrative Prize Ferdinando Camon, Claudio Damiani, Vivian Lamarque, Gabriella Sica, Bruno Tognolini, Lello Voce, Viviana Viviani and Francesco Targhetta. There are also poets and poets who move in different borders such as Morgan, Giorgia Soleri, Lelio Bonaccorso and Umberto Fiori.
The new prize was announced on March 21, on World Poetry Day, at the headquarters of the Bellonci Foundation in Rome, by the president Giovanni Solimine and the director Stefano Petrocchi. The Scientific Committee made up of Maria Grazia Calandrone, Andrea Cortellessa, Mario Desiati, Elisa Donzelli, Roberto Galaverni, Valerio Magrelli, Melania Mazzucco, Stefano Petrocchi, Laura Pugno, Antonio Riccardi, Enrico Testa and Gian Mario Villalta was present.
At the deadline of 28 February, the publishers proposed 120 titles, one for each publisher, to which were added 15 additional titles requested by the Scientific Committee. At the end of April 2023, a first shortlist of titles will be announced, which has not yet been established how many there will be, which will access the selection of the five. The five finalist books will be announced on May 19 at the Turin Book Fair and will be chosen by the Committee. A large jury composed of cultural personalities will determine the winning work.
The prize will be awarded on October 5, in Rome, at the Temple of Venus, inside the Colosseum Archaeological Park. The cinquina will be guests in various Italian locations. These are the stages: 27 May, 38th parallel, in Marsala; June 3, Cervo Ti Strega, in Cervo; July 14, Maxxi Museum, in L’Aquila; 13/17 September Pordenonelegge, in Pordenone.
To celebrate World Poetry Day, at the end of the announcement Sergio Rubini read a selection of verses by twentieth-century authors and authors, from Saba to Montale and from Alda Merini to Amelia Rosselli. During the reading, the illustrator Alessandro Sanna performed a live painting.