Cambridge University is giving members of the public the opportunity to interview a celebrated Italian writer through a live online event.
Today (Friday, September 4) at 5pm, the Cambridge University Italian Society is conducting a live interview online with the award-winning Italian writer, Dacia Maraini, and invites members of the public to send in their questions.
Maraini is one of the most prominent writers in Italy today and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In 1938, when she was a toddler, her family fled from Italy to Japan to escape fascism.
By 1943, they had been interned in a Japanese concentration camp for refusing to recognise Mussolini’s fascist republic.
From age seven, Dacia Maraini spent two years in the camp with her family.
Her first book, The Holiday, a novel about adolescence and sexuality, was published in 1962.
This was followed by The Age of Evil, which won the International Formentor Prize in 1963 and was translated into 12 languages.
In 1966, Maraini, alongside well-known writers Alberto Moravia and Enzo Siciliano, founded the Porcupine Theatre Company in Rome which produced new writing.
Continuing her passion for theatre in 1973, she co-founded the women only Magdalene Theatre Company (Il teatro della Maddalena) in Rome.
Many recurring themes appear in Maraini’s work including the personal freedom of women, exposing the use and abuse of power and its effects on women, and women breaking free of traditional gender roles to explore their sexuality and social activism.
The best-selling Italian writer has published novels, short stories, plays, several investigative studies, collections of poetry and essays and has written and directed films.
She remains vocal about women’s rights and anti-fascism.
The Cambridge University Italian Society are accepting questions for Friday’s interview from members of the public in Cambridge and beyond which can be submitted here.
The event on Friday, September 4 at 5pm BST will be broadcast on YouTube and Facebook Live https://www.facebook.com/events/388403528810963/
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