On Saturday 3 October 2026, the writer Anna Zaniboni Mattioli will open the second edition of “Genius Loci”, the festival that celebrates the spirit of the territory through literature. An exhibition organized by the “Vilma Preti” Municipal Library in Sala Baganza which will host five appointments with established and emerging authors. A journey that will accompany the public on a journey through words, images and sounds, to discover and rediscover a deep link between the art of writing and the Parma area.
On Saturday 3 October at 5 pm, Zaniboni Mattioli will present “Quel buio che ancora non è” (Tacuino, 2022), a novel set at the end of the 1600s. After the death of Alessandro Farnese, his sons Ranuccio and Odoardo find themselves having to defend his reputation as a leader from accusations that he was the architect of the defeat of the Invincible Armada by the Spanish nobility and the Netherlands. A mission that will lead them to commission a fresco for the walls of the Salone del Palazzo Farnese in Rome. To create it, two very talented artists, the brothers Annibale and Agostino Carracci, are called to Rome. A work in which Zaniboni Mattioli intertwines historical and artistic reconstruction, a distinctive feature of his literary production.
The following Saturday, October 10 at 5:30 p.m., the protagonist of “Genius Loci” will be Lorenzo Zucchi with “The Human Engine” (La Memoria del Mondo, 2026), curated by Paolo Mansolillo. The story of a suburban community in crisis, where blue overalls, trade unionists and managers go through days of work and protest, between fragile hopes and inevitable disillusionments. A dispute that is intertwined with unexpected loves, illnesses, escapes and garrisons at the gates, composing the choral portrait of a stubborn and precarious resistance with one certainty: the engine of life is not the factory, nor money, but it is the people themselves and their ability to stay together. Zucchi made his debut with the “Trilogy of Flags” (Underground), autobiographical collections of travel stories around the world published from 2020 to 2023. He is nicknamed the “chronicler of the invisible” for his ability to tell stories from marginal points of view, bringing out the submerged.
On Saturday 24 October at 5 pm it will be the turn of Paolo Scivoletto with “When desire… (What our passions tell us)”, a collection of short stories in which the author tries to decipher the universe of passions, fantasies and desires. Without psychological pretensions, some deviations of our behavior are considered with a pinch of irony.
Scivoletto, originally from Florence but Parmesan by adoption, is the author of short stories and poems, with a preference for fiction. He has published anthologies of creative writing courses: “Racconti a Villa Soragna” (II edition, Cavaliere Azzurro 2002); “Diciassetteetrenta” (Otto/Novecento, 2004).
Cuba and its narrators will instead be at the center of the meeting scheduled for Saturday, November 14 at 5 p.m. with Davide Barilli, a well-known journalist and writer from Parma who will present “Azúcar”, the series he conceived and directed for Oligo. A collection of short texts to show readers the Caribbean island in an unprecedented light, through the stories of authors little known in our country. Barilli, who lives between Parma, eastern Liguria and Havana, has set many of his books in Cuba, such as “Le cere di Baracoa” (Mursia) and “Cuba. Altravana” (Giulio Perrone), both finalists for the Fabriano Prize. He has also produced an art book, “Historietas de mujeres y humo”, in a numbered edition, illustrated by Ramon Perez Pereira, and the book of short stories “El castillo de papel” (Collecion Sur) has been published.
“Genius Loci” will end on Sunday, November 29 at 5 p.m. with Sara Gambazza, author of “When flowers will have time for me”, a female novel set in the Oltretorrente of Parma between the 20s and 40s of the last century, which has as its protagonist Anita, a woman outside the box. She is not a wife and does not live in a dignified house, for the village she is only the Bórda, a prostitute to be avoided during the day and sought out at night. But Anita is much more. She is a survivor, a fierce and loving mother who would do anything to protect her daughters from a world that rejects and judges them mercilessly. While Italy is inflamed under the violence of the fascist squads and hunger grips the alleys of the city, Anita fights her own war to allow her daughters Rosa and Ninfa to grow up. Gambazza lives in Noceto, in the Parma countryside, with her husband, three children, six dogs and two donkeys. She made her debut in fiction with the novel “There are hands that smell good” (Longanesi, 2023).
All the appointments of “Genius Loci” are free of charge. For information, you can send an email to the email address biblioteca@comune.sala-baganza.pr.it.
