The second edition of the Giallo Guilcier prize, promoted by the Union of Municipalities of Guilcier in collaboration with the La Memoria storica cooperative and the Ischìre publishing house, has been left without any winners in the published novel category.
Despite the caliber of the finalists, none of them were able to reach the island, and in particular the village of Ghilarza, to collect the prize that the technical jury would have awarded.
We're talking about names of the caliber of Massimo Carlotto, Alessia Gazzola, and Silvia Napolitano , but the deadlines dictated by the Guilcier Union of Municipalities, even though extended by a month, were difficult to accommodate the authors' busy schedules. And at this point, given the need to receive the prize in person as required by the competition rules, the jury took the drastic decision not to award any prizes, despite the many nominations received for novels already published.
Another choice was made, as jury president Ciro Auriemma explains: "Unfortunately, the tight deadlines didn't allow us to bring the authors because the publishing houses already had a busy schedule . Together with the Historical Memory and the Union of Municipalities, to provide local feedback, we decided to invite a prominent figure in this literary genre, and we decided to recognize Stefano Tura, a radio host with 300 episodes of the program ReNoir, recognizing his importance in promoting crime fiction." Auriemma then adds: "We need to start preparing the prize early or agree to award it later. A prize requires more time. The creative writing workshops offered, on which we shifted the focus, worked well."
Serafino Oppo , president of the Guilcier Union of Municipalities, explained the situation thus: "Unfortunately, as the Union of Municipalities, we don't have the resources in our budget to implement these initiatives, and the only funds we can find are those from the administrative surplus, which must be applied within the year and therefore has a specific timeframe. Therefore, the timeframe cannot be different. It's already a miracle that we've managed to offer the Prize for two years, and in any case, I don't think it went too badly. This is a competition that is emerging and will gradually stabilize, assuming the new administrators decide to continue it."
In the unpublished novels section, first place went to Mauro Ursino , university professor and writer, and second place to Stefano di Sarra , a retired army general.