Verso Incroci: six events leading to the Incroci di civiltà Literature Festival

As we prepare for the Incroci di civiltà (Crossroads of Civilisation) festival, happening this year from April 15 to 18, Verso Incroci returns: a series of events that preview the International Literature Festival organised by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The events, planned for February and March, are part of the Writers in Conversation series and are included in the University’s Public Engagement 2026 initiatives.

The 2026 Verso Incroci preview begins with Giovanni Montanaro on Saturday, February 28. The Venetian author will discuss his latest book, Il fuoco di Venezia, in a conversation with Emanuela Bassetti, in collaboration with Feltrinelli. Journalist Laura Cerutti will chair the discussion, introduced by Flavio Gregori, Director of the Incroci di civiltà Festival. The event is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. in the Auditorium Santa Margherita – “Emanuele Severino” and is free until capacity is reached.

Giovanni Montanaro (Venice, 1983) is a writer and lawyer. He made his debut with the novel La Croce Honninfjord (Marsilio, 2007), which received a special mention in 2006 at the 19th edition of the Premio Italo Calvino. In 2008 he was selected for the Scritture Giovani project at the Mantua Festivaletteratura.

He subsequently published Le conseguenze (Marsilio, 2009) and Tutti i colori del mondo (Feltrinelli, 2012), which was shortlisted for the Premio Campiello. Later came Tommaso sa le stelle (Feltrinelli, 2014), Guardami negli occhi (Feltrinelli, 2017), Le ultime lezioni (Feltrinelli, 2019), Il libraio di Venezia (Feltrinelli, 2020) and Come una Sirena (Feltrinelli, 2023).

The second event in the series will take place on Thursday 5 March at 5.00 p.m. in Ca’ Foscari’s Aula Baratto, featuring Pietro Sequi and Maria Chiara Arese. The authors will be in conversation with Ca’ Foscari researcher Linda Zampol D’Ortia about the volume Cristoforo Borri. Autobiografia di un audace gesuita, un talento vessato, with a contribution by Phan Thi Huyen Trang. The event will offer an opportunity to discover the work of Cristoforo Borri (1583–1632), a Lombard Jesuit, astronomer, mathematician, navigator and missionary active across Italy, Portugal, Spain and South-East Asia. The volume also stems from the authors’ direct and passionate experience, developed over nearly thirty years of life and work in Vietnam in the field of international cooperation and humanitarian aid, and it proposes a rediscovery of a largely overlooked seventeenth-century European figure. Admission is free, subject to availability.

Pietro Sequi, who earned his Engineering degree in 1971, has authored numerous articles on aerospace engineering. Since 1992, he has been an Expert in International Industrial Cooperation, evaluating funding applications for projects in Eastern Europe and the Far East. He has resided in Vietnam since 1997, where he managed projects within the Italian bilateral and multilateral Development Cooperation Programme. For fifteen years, he was the Director of the Local Technical Office in Hanoi, gaining extensive insight into Vietnam’s social and administrative culture, as well as a deep understanding of the Vietnamese people’s mindset, customs, and interpersonal relations.

Maria Chiara Arese, born in Milan in 1953, graduated in History of Art from the University of Milan with a thesis on the Secular Cycle of the Roccabianca Frescoes. She left Milan in the 1980s for Los Angeles, where for fifteen years she worked at the J. Paul Getty Museum as Assistant Curator in the Department of European Paintings. In 1993 she published the correspondence between Vassily Kandinsky and Giovan Antonio Colonna di Cesarò in Kandinsky between East and West. Masterpieces from Russian Museums (Artificio, 1993). Since the summer of 1997 she has devoted herself full-time to humanitarian work in Vietnam.

The programme continues on 17 March with an event featuring the French writer Sorj Chalandon, organised in collaboration with the Pordenone Dedica Festival, where Chalandon is this year's guest of honour. On 24 March at 6:00 p.m., Turkish writer, journalist, and activist Ece Temelkuran will discuss her latest book, Stranieri come te, with Pietro Del Soldà, (in collaboration with Bollati Boringhieri). On 30 March at 5:00 p.m., playwright Marcelo Rubens Paiva will participate in an event organised along with CinemARTa Zone di Contatto. The series will end on 31 March at 5:00 p.m. with Marta Pérez-Carbonell in conversation with Mimmo Cangiano.

Programme

28 February, 11.00 a.m. – Giovanni Montanaro
Auditorium Santa Margherita – Emanuele Severino

5 March, 5.00 p.m. – Pietro Sequi and Maria Chiara Arese
Aula Baratto, Ca’ Foscari

17 March, 11.30 a.m. – Sorj Chalandon
Ca’ Foscari Zattere
In collaboration with Pordenone Dedica Festival 
Reservation is required, on www.unive.it/letteratura

24 March, 6.00 p.m. – Ece Temelkuran
Auditorium Santa Margherita – Emanuele Severino

30 March, 5.00 p.m. – Marcelo Rubens Paiva
Teatro Ca’ Foscari in Santa Marta, as part of the CinemARTa series and in collaboration with Associazione Zero41

31 March, 5.00 p.m. – Marta Pérez-Carbonell
Room B, Ca’ Bernardo