On Wednesday 18 November at 7 pm, the Teatro Palladium of Roma Tre University, in Piazza Bartolomeo Romano 8, will host the announcement of the winner of the second Premio Strega Saggistica, the Strega Prize for non-fiction. For the first time, the final will be open to the public, with free entry from 6.30 pm until seats run out.
The winner will be chosen by a jury of more than fifty figures from academia, scientific research, and investigative and cultural journalism. They will vote on the five books shortlisted by the Scientific Committee, chaired by Giovanni Solimine:
- Giuseppe Antonelli, Alfabit. L’italiano digitale dagli SMS all’IA (il Mulino)
- Miguel Gotor, L’omicidio di Piersanti Mattarella. L’Italia nel mirino: Palermo, Ustica, Bologna. 1979-1980 (Einaudi)
- Tonia Mastrobuoni, La peste. Indagine sulla destra in Germania (Feltrinelli)
- Beatrice Mautino, Vertigine. Storie di chi si affida alla scienza e di chi impara a farlo (Mondadori)
- Alessandro Vanoli, Oriente. Una storia (Laterza)
During the evening, Antonella Ferrara, President of Taobuk, will be in conversation with Luciano Floridi, to whom the Promoting Committee has awarded the 2026 Premio Strega Saggistica Internazionale. A philosopher, Floridi is a professor at Yale, where he directs the Digital Ethics Center, and at the University of Bologna. He is one of the leading thinkers on the ethics of information and artificial intelligence. The award recognises in particular two recent works published in Italian: La differenza fondamentale (Mondadori, 2025, translated by Massimo Durante) and Il nodo etico (Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2026, edited by Massimo Durante).
The evening opens with welcome addresses from Massimiliano Fiorucci, Rector of Roma Tre University, and Riccardo Chiaradonna, President of the Fondazione Roma Tre Teatro Palladium. Speakers will also include Antonella Ferrara, Giovanni Solimine, President of the Fondazione Bellonci, and Giuseppe D’Avino, President of Strega Alberti. The evening will be presented by Eva Giovannini.
The prize has been bound up with Taormina from the start. Its first final took place on 20 June 2025 in Piazza IX Aprile, during the fifteenth edition of Taobuk, where Anna Foa won for Il suicidio di Israele (Laterza). That same evening, Anne Applebaum received the Premio Strega Saggistica Internazionale for Autocracy, Inc., published in Italian by Mondadori as Autocrazie. This year’s shortlist was announced in Taormina on 19 June 2026, during the days of the festival devoted to Trust, the theme of the sixteenth edition.
