Regulation
Art. 1 – The John Fante Festival ‘Il dio di mio padre’ and the Piccolo Festival delle Spartenze. Migrazioni e Cultura announce the second edition of the international literary competition PREMIO ITALIA RADICI NEL MONDO for unpublished short stories, targeted to authors of Italian origin or Italians living abroad who already have at least one publication to their credit in various fields (non-fiction, fiction, poetry) in any language.
Art. 2 – The Prize is divided into two distinct categories: “New Emigration” and “Italian Descendants”. The “New Emigration” category is dedicated to recognising and promoting the stories, experiences and contributions of Italians who have recently chosen to settle abroad. The “Italian Descendants” category, on the other hand, celebrates the descendants of Italian emigrants who, despite living in different cultural contexts, continue to keep their Italian roots alive. Both categories aim to promote the importance of the Italian diaspora and strengthen the ties between Italy and Italian communities around the world.
Art. 3 –The theme of the second edition of the Italia Radici nel Mondo – Toto Holding 2025/2026 Award is: Women in Emigration.
Art. 4 – You compete by sending an unpublished short story written in Italian, or the original text translated into Italian. If translated, the name of the translator must be mentioned. The author must own the copyright to the submitted work.
Art. 5 – The length of the story must be between 10,000 and 20,000 characters, including spaces, under penalty of exclusion. The story must be written in Times New Roman font, in size 12, in black on a blank page, single spaced and with justified alignment, under penalty of exclusion. The formats accepted for the text file are doc, docx, odt and pages.
Art. 6 – The first page of the typescript of the short story must be the title page on which the name and surname of the author, the title of the work, the place and date of birth of the author, the author’s home address, the author’s e-mail address and telephone number.
Furthermore, the name of the translator, if any, must be included.
Art. 7 – If publications or awards occur after the submission of the story, the secretariat must be notified promptly. The publication of the manuscript in the competition – or of any other narrative text – after the entry will result in automatic disqualification from the competition.
Art. 8 – The jury consists of the creators of the award, members of relevant publishing houses, writers, and migration experts. The president of the jury is the anthropologist Vito Teti.
Art. 9 – In the first phase, the Jury will select the finalists; in the second phase, the two winning works will be announced: one for the New Emigration section and the other for the Historical Emigration section. The Jury also reserves the right not to award prizes or to award special prizes. Its decision is final.
Art. 10 – The finalists will be announced in the summer of 2026. The award ceremony will be held in the autumn/winter of 2026 during a special event dedicated to the Italia Radici nel Mondo – Toto Holding Award at a venue yet to be determined.
Art. 11 – The titles of the finalists and winning works will be published on the John Fante Festival website at www.johnfante.org.
Art. 12 – The authors of the winning works will receive a cash prize.
Art.13 – All finalist works will be guaranteed publication. The short stories will be collected in a volume published by an Italian publishing house.
The rights to the texts remain property of the respective authors. However, the authors of the finalist stories subsequently published in other volumes must committ with their publish house to have the original source, i.e. this award, mentioned on the back cover and/or on a special wrapper.
Art. 14 – To participate in the award contest, the following documents must be sent to the secretariat at the e-mail address premioitaliaradicinelmondo@gmail.com:
- the typescript of the short story in Italian with which you intend to participate (preferably doc and docx, but also odt and pages). In the case of a translated story, also send the original version.
- the registration form, fully filled and signed (pdf format)
- scanned of the identity card or passport (only pdf will be accepted for that)
The documentation must be sent to the award secretariat no later than midnight on 31 March 2026 (Italian time), under penalty of exclusion.
Art. 15 – Participation to the contest for the award implies the legal acceptance of all the articles contained in this notice.
Art. 16 – Pursuant to art. 13 of EU Regulation 679/2016, we inform you that the personal data of which the Premio Italia Radici nel Mondo will come into possession will only be used for the purposes of the award itself, in compliance with the aforementioned regulation and in accordance with the confidentiality obligations with which the Prize will always comply.
Under no circumstances will the data collected be disclosed or disseminated to third parties for purposes other than those of the competition.
For further information, please contact the prize secretariat at the following e-mail address: premioitaliaradicinelmondo@gmail.com.
Torricella Peligna, 20 october 2025
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Carmine Ficca, Mayor of Torricella Peligna and organising member of the John Fante Festival
Giovanna Di Lello, creator of the award and director of the John Fante Festival
Giuseppe Sommario, creator of the award and director of the Piccolo Festival delle Spartenza