LETTERATURE Festival Internazionale di Roma - 20 June 2026

Now in its 25th edition and curated this year by Silvia Barbagallo and Anna Voltaggio, LETTERATURE Festival Internazionale di Roma is a historic Roman event showcasing the most important contemporary literary voices. The theme for the 2026 edition is “Sconfinare” (Crossing Boundaries), exploring the limits imposed by the body, by social roles, and by language. The evenings of 19, 20 and 21 June will take place in the majestic setting of the Palatino Stadium, within the Colosseum Archaeological Park.

The evening of 20 June has as its sub-theme “Against the wind. Stories of resistance” and will open with a tribute to the great Iranian-born French cartoonist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi, followed by a previously unpublished piece by the journalist and writer Widad Tamimi, founder of the IOIEN association, which is dedicated to providing scholarships for young people fleeing war zones. The evening’s interviews feature the journalist and writer Ahmet Altan, a political prisoner under the Erdoğan regime for crimes of opinion, and the writer and journalist Samar Yazbek, a Syrian exile and one of the most committed and prominent intellectuals in the struggle against the Syrian regime. Pietro Sermonti will read the “Open Letter from a Writer to the Military Junta”, written by Rodolfo Walsh on 24 March 1977, on the first anniversary of the coup in Argentina. The evening will continue with an unpublished text (the first without illustrations) by Zerocalcare and two texts by the Ukrainian writer and journalist Yaryna Grusha and the Russian journalist Vera Politkovskaya, daughter of Anna Politkovskaya.

Pegah Moshir Pour will guide the audience through the two-hour literary event, weaving together the narrative thread that links the guests and the chosen themes. Iaia Forte and Maria Chiara Giannetta will read the unpublished texts by Ahmet Altan and Samar Yazbek, respectively. Music is by Gabriele Coen and Ziad Trabelsi, leading figures in Jewish and Arab musical culture in Italy.

More info on the festivaldelleletterature website and on the event’s social media channels.